

3/-^ayi^. y<^/i^ 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS 



OR 



General Custer in Kansas and Texas 



BY 



ELIZABETH b' CUSTER 



Author of "Boots and Saddles." 



O 46- CN-'t- 



NEW YORK 

Charles L. Webster & Company 

1887 






Copyrighted, 1887, 

CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 

(/4// rights reserved.) 



^ 



PRESS OF 

Jenkins & McCowan, 
22^-228 Centre St. 



(\ 



DEDICATION TO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

TO HIM WHOSE BRAVE AND BLITHE ENDURANCE MADE THOSE 
WHO FOLLOWED HIM FORGET, IN HIS SUNSHINY PRES- 
ENCE, HALF THE HARDSHIP AND THE DANGER. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Biographical Sketch of Major-General George A. Custer. 1-25 

CHAPTER I. 

Good-by to the Army of the Potomac— Off for Texas 
—Twenty Minutes for Dinner— History of Eliza- 
Down the Mississippi— A Crevasse— General Custer 
Meeting Confederate General Hood 27-62 

CHAPTER n. 

New Orleans after the War— General Winfield Scott— Up 
Red River— The Skill of the Pilots— Our Romantic 
Lover— At Alexandria— A Negro Prayer-Meeting— 
Confederate Forts— Quicksands— Alligator Hunting 63-92 

CHAPTER III. 

Mutiny— Trial by Court Martial— A Military Execution 
—Marching Through Texas— Foraging for a Bed- 
Joy over a Pillow— Every Man has his Price— Four 
Months in a Wagon— Life Without a Looking-Glass 93-13° 

CHAPTER IV. 

Marches Through Pine Forests— Officers Attacked 
with Break-Bone Fever— Promises of Bold-Flowing 
Streams— Introduction to the Pine-Tree Rattle-Snake 
—Scorpions, Tarantulas, Centipedes, Chiggers and 
Seed-ticks— Crossing the Ponton—" I Went A- 
Fishing " ' 31-149 



VIU CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER V. 
Out of the Wilderness— Our Camp at Hempstead — 
Hospitality of Southern Planters — The General's 
Deer-Hunting — A Baptism of Gore — Escape from 
Being Blown up by Powder — Eliza Establishes an 
Orphan Asylum — The Protecting Care that Officers 
Show to Women 1 50-1 78 

CHAPTER VI. 
A Texas Norther— A School-Girl's First Impression of 
Texas — The Ants as our Thriving Neighbors — Gen- 
eral Custer 111 of Break-Bone Fever — Measuring an 
Alligator — The March to Austin — Chasing Jack-Rab- 
bits—Byron, the Greyhound T 179-208 

CHAPTER VII. 
Byron as a Thief — An Equestrian Dude — Mexican Horse 
Equipage and Blankets — General Custer visits a Deaf 
and Dumb Asylum — Tales of Lawlessness — Pistols 
Everywhere — Entertainments at our Quarters — Eliza's 
Colored Ball 209-236 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Letters Home — Extracts— Caught by a Norther — Longing 
for a Yankee Wood-Pile — Colonel Groome of 1812 — 
Jack Rucker Beaten in a Horse-Race — Ginnieand her 
Family — Our Father Custer's Dog 237-259 

CHAPTER IX. 
Disturbed Condition of Texas — A Woman's Horse Edu- 
cation at the Stables — Leaving Austin for Hemp- 
stead — Sam Houston a Hero among our Offi- 
cers — Detention in Galveston — A Texas Norther on 
the Gulf of Mexico — Narrow Escape from Ship- 
wreck — Return Home on a Mississippi Steamer. . . . 260-290 

CHAPTER X. 
Father Custer Gives an Account of how he was a Boy with 
his Boys on the Mississippi River — A Family Robbery 
— General Custer Parts with his Staff at Cairo and 
Detroit— The Silent Heroes — Temptations to Induce 
General Custer to Resign — Offers from Mexico — One 
of his Class-mates Enters the Ministry 291-321 



CONTENTS. IX 



CHAPTER XI. 

Reception by the War Veterans of their Boy General — , 
Appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventh Cavalry 1 
— A Raid after a Pretty Girl -Our Family of Horses 
and Dogs — Orders to Report at Fort Riley, Kansas — 
Jollifications at St. Louis — Friendship for Lawrence 
Barrett 322-347 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Good-by to Civilization — Westward Ho ! — The Prairie- 
Schooner as we First Saw It — A few Comments on 
the Wisdom of the Army Mule — The Wagon-Master 
and Mule-Whacker as Types of Western Eccentricity 
— Carrying Supplies to Distant Posts — First Overland 
Journey in an Army Ambulance — Arrival at Fort 
Riley — Border Warfare Between Quarrelsome Dogs 
— The Hospitality of Officers and their Families — Wel- 
comed and Housed by one of General Custer's Old 
Friends — Changing of Quarters According to Army 
Regulations — Preparing a New-Comer for his Call on 
the Commanding Officer's Family — The New Arrival 
Presents Himself in very Full Dress — Diana's Horse 
tells Tales — General Custer Takes his Dogs and gives 
run to his Horse over the Plains — His Horses Com- 
mune with him after their Dumb Fashion — The 
Strength of his Arm Reserved for the Country — 
Separated from the Post by the Prairie Divides — 
We Trade Horses — Phil Sheridan Tested on a Race- 
Track — Fighting Dissipation in the Seventh Cavalry 
— General Custer's Temptations — The Family Teach 
him to Appreciate his Sunburned Nose — Men Who 
Command the Admiration of Women — The Inde- 
structibility of an Army Demijohn 349-403 

CHAPTER XIII. 

"Good Society" — An Embarrassing Position for an 
Officer — The General Extricates Him — A Mock Trial 
— Varieties of Character — Lessons in Horsemanship — 
A Disgraced Cavalry Woman — Gossip — A Medley of 
Officers and Men — War on a Dressing-Gown 404-439 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER XIV. 



Ristori, and the Course of True Love — A Proposal on the 
House-top— Gideon's Band — A Letter from Charles 
C. Leland — Breitmann in Kansas — Clever Rogues 
Escape from the Guard-House — Marketing in Junc- 
tion City — Crossing a Swollen River — The Story of 
Johnnie — An Expedition Leaves Fort Riley for a 

Campaign 440-48/ 

CHAPTER XV. 

A Prairie Fire — Letters from the General— Lending a 
Dog for a Bedfellow — Beauty's Bows and Beaux — 
Negro Recruits Turn the Post into a Circus — Ladies 
Fired on by a Sentinel — The Sugar Mutiny — Small- 
pox in the Garrison — General Gibbs Restores Order — 
An Earthquake at Fort Riley 488-514 

CHAPTER XVL 

Extracts from General Custer's Letters— The March from 
Fort Riley to Fort Harker— Dogs and Horses on their 
First Western Campaign— Experiences in Messing in 
a Country Void of Supplies— Chasing Jack-rabbits. . 515-530 j 

CHAPTER XVII. I 

Extracts from Letters to General Custer— Crossing Fox | 

River — Account of the Undisciplined Troops — War's 
Alarms — Mourning for Custis Lee 531-549 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Gratitude — A Great Snow-Storm — The Sibley Tent — 
General Custer Defines his Ambition — The Cook 
Devises Strange Additions to the Bill of Fare — Gen- 
eral Hancock Holds a Council with the Chiefs of the 
Cheyennes — The Indian Nobility Request that their 
Supper be Served before the Talk — The Pipe of Peace 
— A Hint for Further Refreshments — General Custer 
Visits the Villages of Sioux, Apaches and Cheyennes 
— A Deputation of Three Hundred Warriors and 
Chiefs in Battle Line — The General's Description of 
Them — Civilized and Barbarous Warfare Confronting 
Each Other — Flight of the Indians — General Custer 
and his Regiment are sent in Pursuit — Extracts from 
General Custer's Letters Written from Fort Larned. . 550-561 



1 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Extracts from General Custer's Letters from Fort Hays 
and Fort Wallace- An Account of Killing his First 
BufTalo-Calf-The Death of Custis Lee-Extract from 
a Letter Written by General Hancock on the Indian 
Depredations-Riding to Meet the Mail-T he Doctor 
Eats Indian Soup in the Village-Some Items Regard- 
ing a Match Bufialo-Hunt 

CHAPTER XX. 

Sacrifices and Self-Denial of Pioneer Duty-Poor Water 
^nd Alkaline Dust-Vagaries of Western Water- 
Ways-Digging in Sunken Stream-Beds for Water 
-Rivers Unfringed by Trees or Shrubs-The Allur- 
ing Mirage-A Short Tribute to the Western 
Pioneers— Their Endurance, Patience and Courage 
-The Governor of a Western Territory Shines as a 
Cook as well as a Statesman-The General Writes o 
his First Buf?alo-Hunt-An Accidental Discharge of 
his Pistol Kills my Horse, Custis Lee-General 
Sherman as a Special Providence-The Western 
Town on a Move-Government makes no Provision 
for Army Women to say their Prayers-Journey 
to Fort Hays-The Match Hunt of the Regiment- 
Supper Given by the Vanquished to the Victors- 
Reception Given by the Elements on our Arrival- 
The Tent Goes Down-A Scout to Fort McPherson 
-A Sentinel Fires on his Friends by Mistake- 
General Custer sends Escort to take us to his Camp 
-Captain Robbins and Colonel Cook Attacked, and 
• Fight for Three Hours '4 29 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Encamped on Big Creek-Preparation for Storms-^ 
Flood at Fort Hays-Kansas Lightning-Solicitude 
about a Clothes-Line-Women to the Rescue-Men 
Saved from Drowning-A New Kind of Ferry-Boat 
-Gatling Guns as Anchors-Ghastly Lights-Lhza s 
Narrative-Flora McFlimsey on the Frontier-The ^^^ 
Retreat to a Prairie Divide 3^^ 35 



xii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Ordered Back to Fort Harker — A Drunken Escort — 
Wild-Flowers — Color without Odor — Game — Wild 
Horses — A Dromedary on the Plains — A Woman 
Pioneering — A Riddled Stage — Our Bed Running 
Away — Cholera — A Contrast — Reckoning Chances of 
Promotion — The Addled Mail-Carrier 656-675 

CHAPTER XXni. 

The First Fight of the Seventh Cavalry — Reinforce- 
ments of Black Troops — A Negro's Manoeuvre — A 
Unique Official Report — Peculiar Fortifications — 
Indian Attack on a Stage — A Desperate Running 
Fight — A Plucky Woman — Cholera at Fort Wallace 
— Return of the Seventh There — Swindling Contract- 
ors — Desertions — An Ingenious Prison — Fort Wallace 
Attacked — A Brave and Skillful Sergeant — The 
Worst Days of the Seventh — No Letters — General 
Custer's March to Fort Harker for Supplies — A Day 
at Fort Riley — Happiness at Last 67C-702 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Major-General George A. Custer Frontispiece. 

Maps of Texas in 1866 and in 1886 Page 26 

Eliza Cooking Under Fire 43 

Sabre Used by General Custer During the War 85 

A Mule Lunching From a Pillow '23 

General Custer as a Cadet • 37 

Our Bunkies '71 

Measuring an Alligator ^99 

General Custer at the Close of the War (Aged 25) 265 

"Stand There, Cowards, will you, and See an Old Man 

Robbed ? " -95 

General Custer with his Horse "Vic," Stag-hounds and 

Deer-hounds 333 

Maps of Kansas in 1866 and Kansas to-day 34^ 

Conestoga Wagon, or Prairie-schooner 35 1 

The Officer's Dress — A New-comer for a Call 375 

A Suspended Equestrienne 3^7 

General Custer at His Desk in His Library 409 

Gun-stand in General Custer's Library 45' 

Trophies of the Chase in General Custer's Library 467 

Whipping Horses to Keep them from Freezing 497 

"Well, You are a Warm-blooded Cuss ! " 5^3 

Smoking The Pipe of Peace 557 

A Buflfalo Undecided as to an Attack on General Custer 567 

A Buffalo at Bay 573 

A Match Buffalo Hunt 607 

Gathering and Counting the Tongues 611 

The Banquet 613 

The Addled Letter-carrier 673 

Negroes form their own Picket-line 679 

An Attack on a Stage-coach 683 



XUl 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GEN- 
ERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER. 

/^ENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUS- 
^^ TER was born in New Rumley, Harrison 
County, O., Decembers, 1839. He was the elaest 
of a family of five children, consisting of four 
boys and one girl — Thomas, Nevin, Boston and 
Margaret. There were three sets of children in the 
family, as the father, Emanuel Custer, was a wid- 
ower with a son and daughter when he married 
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who also had two sons. There 
was such harmony and happiness among them 
that outsiders knew no difference between full or 
half brothers and sisters, and they themselves al- 
most resented the question, saying that it was a sub- 
ject they never discussed, nor even thought about. 
Armstrong, as he was called at home, became his 
father's and mother's idol and pride when he first 
began to talk, for he was very bright and extremely 
affectionate. His father belonged to the militia of 
the county, and took the boy out on training days, 
or whenever there happened to be any military dis- 
play in the town. Almost the first little speech 



2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

he learned was a line he picked up from a decla- 
mation one of his elder brothers was committing 
to memory as a school task. His father was 
proud, as well as surprised, to hear the little Arm- 
strong lisp out one day, waving his tiny arm in 
the air, " My voice is for war." How soon this 
love for military life became a settled purpose no 
one knows, for the boy was reticent as to his 
future ; and always tender and considerate of his 
invalid mother, he would not hurt her by talking 
of leaving home. He only said, as he followed 
the plough on his father's farm, that he would not 
choose that life for his future. He loved books, 
and when his brothers either slept or played at 
the nooning time, he lay in the furrow and pored 
over the lives of distinguished men or tales of 
travel and adventure, that the thoughtful father 
denied himself some comfort in order to buy for 
his boys. 

General Custer, when asked once in his home how 
he came to be able to command a brigade of cav- 
alry at the age of twenty-three, attributed a great 
deal of the success he had attained to the lesson 
of self-control he had learned in teaching school, 
and said that the duties of a teacher were an ad- 
mirable training for a man who afterward com- 
manded troops. The lad Armstrong was deter- 
mined to obtain an education, and taught the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 3 

district school in order to defray his expenses at 
an academy at Hopedale. He afterward went 
to Monroe, Mich., to avail himself of the ad- 
vantages of an excellent academy for boys, and 
paid his way by working for his half-sister, with 
whom he lived. During this time of work and 
study his mmd was fixed on entering the military 
academy at West Point. He consulted no one, 
but on his return to Ohio he framed such a manly, 
earnest letter to the Member of Congress from his 
father's district, the Hon. John A. Bmgham, that, 
though opposed in politics, he could not refuse, 
and out of eleven applications departed from the 
usual rule, and gave the appointment to the son 
of one who was not his constituent. 

The leaving-taking at home was the first trial 
for the boy Armstrong. His choice of profession 
was a surprise and a great trial to the devoted 
mother, but she was a superior woman, and real- 
ized that she had reared a son whose life could 
not be circumscribed by the narrow confines of 
his father's farm. Cadet life was a period of al- 
most uninterrupted happiness, but, though quick 
in mastering his tasks, his buoyant, fun-lovmg 
temperament kept Cadet Custer very near the 
foot of the class. He was wont to say, laugh- 
ingly, in after years, that it required more skill to 
graduate next to the foot, as he did, than to be at 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

the head of the Hst ; as, to keep within one of 
going out, and yet escape being dropped, was a 
serious problem. 

He was graduated in the June of 1861, and was 
too eager for active service to take the usual leave 
of absence, but reported for duty at Washington 
at once. Having had the privilege of choosing 
the profession he liked, his enthusiasm at the pros- 
pect of entering at once into the field had but one 
serious side. He was deeply attached to his 
Southern classmates ; and those with whom he had 
parted with sadness, as one by one they returned 
to their seceding State, were now to be arraigned 
before him on an opposite side. But though they 
afterward fought one another constantly during 
the war, the attachment of cadet days was too 
deep-seated to be disturbed. After the surrender 
at Appomattox he met and entertained at his 
headquarters his Southern classmates, while on the 
night of the surrender seven Confederate generals, 
whom he had captured, shared his tent and slept 
under the same blankets with him. 

On the 20th of July, 1861, Lieutenant Custer 
reported for duty to the adjutant-general of the 
army, and was intrusted with despatches from 
General Scott to General McDowell. After deliver- 
ing the despatches at 3 o'clock in the morning, at 
the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, he 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. r 

reported for duty to the Fifth Cavalry, to which he 
had been assigned. He was wont to say, laughingly, 
that he "reached the front just in time to run with all 
the rest" after the disastrous day at Bull Run. His 
comrades represent him as the hardest rider among 
them. If the regiment was relieved, and ordered 
to turn into .quarters for recuperation, Lieutenant 
Custer, after seeing to the feeding of his horse, 
obtained permission to be absent from his com- 
mand, and was off, as his fellow-soldiers described 
it, "smelling out another fight." He became lean 
and haggard, though perfectly well, and his un- 
groomed horse was also gaunt from hard service. 
On one of these expeditions about the Army of 
the Potomac, which stretched for miles over the 
country. General Kearney, who was also a hard 
rider and an untiring soldier, saw young Custer 
and invited him to become a member of his staff. 
Lieutenant Custer remained with him until an 
order was issued relieving regular officers from 
staff duty with volunteer generals. In the win- 
ter of 1861-62 he remained with his regiment 
and served in the defenses of Washington, 
engaging in the Manassas and Peninsula cam- 
paigns; and at Cedar Run he led his squadron in a 
charge against the Confederate pickets, and forced 
them to retire across the stream. He marched 
with his regiment when the Army of the Potomac 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

chanofed its base to the Peninsula; and at Warwick 
was selected as assistant to the chief of engineers 
on the staff of General (Baldy) Smith, retaining^ 
that position until the army halted at the Chicka- 
hominy River. At the siege of Yorktown he was 
engaged in the superintending of the construction 
of earthworks, and was also given the duty of 
making reconnoissances in a balloon, being among 
the first to discover and report the evacuation of 
the town. He took part in the battle of Williams- 
burg with General Hancock's brigade, and was 
highly commended by that officer after leading 
two regiments to an important position near Fort 
Magruder. He commanded a company in an 
important skirmish at New Bridge, near Cold 
Harbor, on May 24, which was the result of a 
reconnoissance to secure information concerning 
the fords and roads. in that vicinity and to attack 
the enemy, who were reported encamped near the 
bridge. 

General McClellan's headquarters were about 
a mile from the Chickahominy River, and it was 
desirous that a safe crossing for the army should 
be discovered. Lieutenant Custer, in one of his 
customary sallies by himself, in search of any 
portion of the army that might be having a 
skirmish, met General Barnard, of General McClel- 
lan's staff, and offered to try for the ford for which 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 7 

the chief engineer of the army was looking. He 
not only found a safe and firm crossing to the 
opposite bank, but concluded, while over there, 
to make a reconnoissance to ascertain what he 
could of the position of the enemy. The Gen- 
eral in vain attempted, by gestures, to deter him 
from this venturesome deed. He reported, on his 
return, that the principal picket guard could be 
captured by determined men. 

General Barnard could not pass such conduct by 
unnoticed, and asked the dripping, muddy lieuten- 
ant to his headquarters. It was in this predicament 
he first met General McClellan, with his brilliant 
staff, described then as resembling the glittering tail 
of a meteor as they rode behind their chief in full 
uniform. Lieutenant Custer was a sorry sight. He 
often laughed, in describing himself in after years, 
and drew a comical contrast between his Rozi- 
nante of a horse, rough, muddy and thin, his own 
splashed, weather-worn clothes, and the superbly 
equipped men who confronted him. After the chief 
engineer had reported what the young lieutenant 
had accomplished. General McClellan rode up to 
him, and asked if he would like to become one of 
his staff. He accepted the appointment at once, 
and was made aide-de-camp of volunteers, with 
the rank of captain, to date from June 5, 1862. 
He immediately asked to be permitted to attack 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

the picket guard he had discovered that day, and 
at dayhght next morning surprised the enemy, 
who retreated so hastily that they left their dead 
and wounded on the field. He took some prison- 
ers, and had also the honor to take the first colors 
that were captured by the Army of the Potomac. 

While on the staff of General McClellan he par- 
ticipated in the battle of Fair Oaks, the seven 
days' fighting, including the battles of Gaines's 
Mill and Malvern Hill, the skirmish in White Oak 
Swamp, and the evacuation of the Peninsula. 

After General McClellan was relieved from the 
command of the army. Captain Custer continued 
on his personal staff, and later was engaged in 
the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, and 
the pursuit of the enemy to Warrenton. At this 
time he was promoted in his regiment from second 
to first lieutenant, to date from July 17, 1862. 
He took part in the brilliant cavalry Engagement 
at Barbee's Cross-roads on November 5, as a 
representative of the headquarters staff, and two 
days after he followed General McClellan into 
retirement. He was devoted to General McClel- 
lan, and was grieved and keenly disappointed 
when his chief was retired from active service. 
The last magazine article he ever wrote, published 
after his death, spoke with enthusiasm, affection, 
and faith undisturbed after fourteen years. In 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 9 

like manner General McClellan bore testimony to 
his unwavering friendship for his old aide-de-camp 
in "McClellan's Own Story," pubHshed after his 
death by Webster & Co. 

While Captam Custer was on waiting orders he 
remained in his half-sister's home, Monroe, Mich., 
among the schoolmates and friends of several 
years before. As it was winter, and no active 
operations were going on at the front, he was not 
impatient, and the time did not drag. It was in 
Monroe that he met his wife, the daughter of 
Judge Daniel S. Bacon, and, but for the Judge's 
opposition to military life for his only daughter, 
they would have then been married. On March 
31, 1863, he was discharged from volunteer com- 
mission, and joined his company at Capitol Hill, 
D. C, on the 3d of April, where he served until 
May 15, and was appointed aide-de-camp to Gen- 
eral Pleasonton, participated in the closing opera- 
tions of the Rappahannock campaign, was en- 
gaged in the action at Brandy Station ; and for 
daring gallantry in the skirmish at Aldie he was 
appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers, to 
date from June 29, 1863, and was assigned to the 
Michigan brigade, which he soon made famous. 
The men of his brigade adored him, and used to 
boast to their comrades in other commands, " Our 
boy-general never says ' Go in, men !' he says, with 



lO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

that whoop and yell of his, * Come on, boys !' and 
in we go, you bet." 

General Custer was then twenty-three years of 
age, the youngest general in the service ; his 
golden hair fell in curls on his shoulders, in obey- 
ance to a boyish whim and a bet that he would 
not cut it till the war was ended. On his lip was 
his first downy mustache, but his keen eye marked 
the determination and ability to command, while 
his valor was, as the soldiers said, of that sort that 
asks no man to go where he does not lead. He 
joined the Third Cavalry Division on the 29th of 
June, at Hanover, Pa., and participated in the 
Pennsylvania campaign, and was engaged on the 
ist of July in a skirmish with the enemy's cavalry. 
He had a horse killed under him on the 2d of 
July, while leading a company of the Sixth Michi- 
gan Cavalry in a charge near Hunterstown. He 
was conspicuous on the right of the army at the 
battle of Gettysburg, in conjunction with the 
brigades of Gregg and Mcintosh, in defeating 
General Stuart's effort to turn that flank. He 
moved on the morning of the 4th with the Third 
Cavalry Division in pursuit of the enemy, and 
was engaged in the skirmishes at the Monterey 
House and Hagerstown, the actions at Williams- 
port (6th and 14th), Boonesboro', Funkstown 
and Falling Waters, and was made a brevet 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. \ i 

major, to date from July 3, 1863, for gallant and 
meritorious services at the battle of Gettysburg. 

He was then employed in central Virginia till 
the end of the year, and was engaged in the 
skirmish at King George Court House, and in the 
advance toward and skirmish at Culpeper Court 
House (September 13), where a piece of shell 
wounded him on the inside of the thigh, and 
killed his horse. He was disabled for field service 
until the 8th of October. Accepting twenty days 
leave of absence, he went to Monroe, Mich., to 
again petition Judge Bacon for his daughter's 
hand. He was met with great cordiality, offered 
the sincerest congratulations, commended as only 
one self-made man can commend another, and a 
reluctant consent given to the engagement ; re- 
luctant because the Judge believed the military 
profession too hazardous and uncertain to admit 
of matrimony in time of war. 

He returned to his command in October, and 
was engaged in the action at James City and 
Brandy Station (where his determined action pre- 
vented the capture of his brigade), the movement 
toward Centreville, the actions at Gainesville and 
Buckland's Mills, the skirmish at Stevensburg and 
the Mine Run operations. 

In the February of '1864 he went to Monroe, 
and on the 9th was married to Elizabeth Bacon. 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

They were recalled from the bridal tour by tele- 
grams urging the return of the General to the front, 
in order that he might take command of a portion of 
the Army of the Potomac, which was to be sent in 
a certain direction as a feint to attract the Confed- 
erate army, while General Kilpatrick, with the 
cavalry (General Custer's brigade with them), 
attempted to get into Richmond. Leaving his 
bride at a farm-house at Stevensburg.Va., where his 
headquarters were established almost in sight of 
Confederate pickets, he started at once on his arri- 
val, and made so successful a feint that the bulk of 
the enemy were turned in pursuit. Soon after his 
return his wife went to Washington, to remain as 
near as possible during the active operations of 
the summer. General Custer took part in the 
Wilderness campaign. In the re-organization of 
the cavalry — caused by the removal of General 
Pleasonton, the death of General Buford, the trans- 
fer of General Kilpatrick to the West — he was 
transferred, with the Michigan brigade, to the 
First Cavalry Division, which crossed the Rapidan 
in May, the main army being toward Orange 
Court House. He was engaged in the battles of 
the Wilderness (where the cavalry was on the 
left) and Todd's Tavern ; in General Sheridan's 
cavalry raid toward Richmond by the way of 
Beaver Dam Station and Ashland, during which 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. i -> 

his brigade had the advance, and by a gallant dash 
captured at Beaver Dam Station three large trains, 
which were conveying rations to the Confederate 
army, destroying several miles of railroad, and 
releasing four hundred prisoners, who were e}t 
route to Richmond. On the next day he assisted 
in the destruction of the Ashland Station, and on 
the nth of May the command was within four 
miles of Richmond, on the Brook pike, with his 
brigade again in the advance ; and the action of 
Yellow Tavern followed, where he won the brevet 
of lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious 
services. He was engaged in the actions at 
Meadow Bridge, Mechanicsville and Hanovertown, 
the battles of Hawes's Shop and Cold Harbor, and 
in General Sheridan's second raid, during which 
was fought the battle of Trevillian Station (where 
his brigade was at one time in such great peril that 
he tore the colors from the staff and concealed 
them in the breast of his coat), and in the skirmish 
at Newark. After a brief rest near Petersburg, his 
brigade was transferred from the Army of the 
Potomac to the Shenandoah Valley, and arrived 
at Halltown about the 8th of August, and partici- 
pated, with the First Cavalry Division, in the 
skirmishes at Stone Chapel and at Newtown, the 
brilliant action at Cedarville, near Front Royal, 
the combats at Kearneysville, Smithfield, Berry- 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

ville and Opequan Creek, the battles of Winchester 
and Fisher's Hill (where he rendered conspicuous 
service), and the actions at Cedarville and Luray. 
He was made a brevet colonel, to date from Sep- 
tember 19, 1864, for gallant and meritorious serv- 
ices at the battle of Winchester, and brevet 
major-general of volunteers, to date from October 
19, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services at 
the battles of Winchester and Fisher's Hill. 

He was assigned on the 26th of September to 
the command of the Second Cavalry Division, 
which he attempted to join at Piedmont, but the 
enemy appeared in force, and he was compelled to 
return to the cavalry headquarters, where he 
remained until the 30th, when he was transferred 
to the Third Cavalry Division and assumed the 
command at Harrisonburg, and started on the 6th 
of October with the Army of the Shenandoah, on 
the return march through the valley, moving on 
the road nearest the Blue Ridge, and repulsed the 
army that night at Turkey town. On the next day 
his rear guard was frequently engaged with the 
enemy during the march toward Columbia Fur- 
naces, and the next day they fought his rear guard 
with so much persistency that General Sheridan 
ordered his chief of cavalry to attack them, and 
at daybreak on the 9th of October the brilliant 
cavalry action of Woodstock was begun. General 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 



15 



Custer, having completed the formation for a 
charge, rode to the front of his Hne and saluted 
his former classmate, General Rosser, who com- 
manded the Confederate cavalry, and then moved 
his division at a trot, which in a few minutes was 
changed to a gallop, and as the advancing line 
neared the enemy the charge was sounded, and 
the next instant the division enveloped their flanks, 
and forced them to retreat for two miles, when 
General Rosser made a brilliant effort to recover 
the lost ground ; but General Custer rapidly 
re-formed his brigades, and again advanced in a 
second charge with the other divisions, and drove 
the enemy to Mount Jackson, a distance of 
twenty-six miles, with the loss of everything on 
wheels except one gun. 

He was conspicuous at the battle of Cedar 
Creek, where he confronted the enemy from the 
first attack in the morning until the battle 
was ended. After the first surprise he was 
recalled from the right, and assigned to the 
left, where the enemy were held in check. After 
General Sheridan appeared on the field, he was 
returned to the extreme right; and at quarter past 
4 o'clock, p. M., when the grand advance was 
made, leaving three regiments to attend to the 
cavalry in his front, he moved into position with 
the other regiments of his division to participate 



1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

in the movement. The divisions of cavalry, 
sweeping both flanks, crossed Cedar Creek about 
the same time, and, breaking the last line the 
enemy attempted to form, charged upon their 
artillery and trains, and continued the pursuit to 
Fisher's Hill, capturing and retaking a large num- 
ber of guns, colors and materials of war. He 
won in this battle an enduring fame as a cavalry 
leader, and was recommended by General Torbert 
for promotion, which, upon several occasions, he 
had justly earned. He was sent to Washington at 
the end of the campaign, in charge of the captured 
battle-flags, and upon his return to the valley, com- 
manded, in December, an expedition to Harrison- 
burg, and was attacked at Lacey Springs at day- 
break of the 2oth by a superior force, and com- 
pelled to retire to Winchester, where he remained 
during the winter. He was promoted to a cap- 
taincy in his regiment, May 8, 1864, and assigned 
to duty on his brevet rank as major-general of 
volunteers. 

He participated in General Sheridan's last cav- 
alry raid during the spring of 1865, marching 
from Winchester to Harrisonburg, and thence to 
Waynesboro, where, while in the advance, he 
engaged and defeated the enemy, and captured 
three guns, two hundred wagons, sixteen hundred 
prisoners and seventeen battle flags. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 



17 



He was a conspicuous figure in the brilliant 
operations of that dashing movement until the 
command (First and Third divisions), having 
crossed the Peninsula and the James River, en- 
camped on the 26th of March in rear of the 
Army of the Potomac, which was then in front of 
Petersburg. 

On the next day the two divisions were moved 
to the rear of the extreme left, and encamped at 
Hancock's Station, where they were joined by the 
Second Division, and on the 29th the entire cav- 
alry corps moved out to raid in the rear of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, cut the South Side Rail- 
road, and effect a junction with General Sherman 
in North Carolina ; but the plans were changed 
during the night, and the cavalry corps was or- 
dered to turn the enemy's right flank, which 
brought on the actions at Five Forks and Dinwid- 
dle Court House, and the next day General Custer 
won the brevet of brigadier-general, to date from 
March 13, 1865 (antedated), for gallant and meri- 
torious Services at the battle of Five Forks. He 
was engaged in the actions at Sailor's Creek and 
Appomattox Station, received the first flag of truce 
from the Army of Northern Virginia, and was 
present at the surrender at Appomattox Court 
House, April 9, 1865, and a few days afterward 
participated in the movement to Dan River, N. C.„ 



l8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

which marks the close of his services during the 
War of the RebeUion. He was made a brevet 
major-general, to date from March 13, 1865, for 
gallant and meritorious services during the cam- 
paign ending with the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, and was appointed a major- 
general of volunteers, to date from April 15, 1865. 

One of his friends has said : " His perceptive 
faculties, decision of character, dash and audacity 
won the favor of the peculiar Kearney, the cau- 
tious McClellan, the sarcastic Pleasonton and the 
impetuous Sheridan ; and these generals, with 
wholly different ideas and characters, trusted him 
with unlimited confidence." 

In a general order addressed to his troops, dated 
at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, Gen- 
eral Custer said : " During the past six months, 
though in most instances confronted by superior 
numbers, you have captured from the enemy in 
open battle 1 1 1 pieces of field artillery, sixty-five 
battle-flags and upward of ten thousand prisoners 
of war, including seven general officers. Within 
the past ten days, and included in the above, you 
have captured forty-six field-pieces of artillery and 
thirty-seven battle-flags. You have never lost a 
gun, never lost a color, and never been defeated ; 
and, notwithstanding the numerous engagements 
in which you have borne a prominent part, includ- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. ig 

ing those memorable battles of the Shenandoah, 
you have captured every piece of artillery which 
the enemy has dared to open upon you." 

General Custer participated in all but one of the 
battles of the Army of the Potomac, had eleven 
horses shot under him, received bullet-holes in his 
hat, had a lock of his hair cut off by a passing- 
shot, was wounded in the thigh by a spent ball, 
was crushed by the fall of his wounded horse 
until the buttons of his jacket were almost flat- 
tened, and at one time charged into the enemy's 
lines, and would have been taken prisoner^ except 
that in the melee he escaped, as he wore an over- 
coat he had captured from a Confederate officer in 
a former engagement. His whole four years of 
service during the war was a series of narrow 
escapes. 

After the first day's review in Washmgton, he 
parted with his beloved Third Cavalry Division, 
and started at once for Texas, where he took com- 
mand of a division of Western cavalry, whose 
term of service had not expired, and marched 
from Alexandria, on Red River, La., to Hempstead, 
in Texas. In the autumn he was made chief of 
cavalry, and marched to Austin, where he sup- 
ported the Governor and the new State organiza- 
tion in restoring order to the demoralized country. 

In March, 1866, he was mustered out of the 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

volunteer service, to date from February, 1866. A 
proposition was made from President Juarez to 
give him command of the Mexican cavalry in the 
struggle against Maximilian, but President John- 
son declined to give the necessary leave of 
absence, and/ General Custer decided to remain at 
home, and accepted the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 
Seventh Cavalry, his appointment datmg July 28, 
1866. He reported for duty at Fort Riley, Kansas, 
his regiment's headquarters, in November, and 
remained in Kansas five years, during which time 
he was on expeditions in pursuit of Indians in the 
Indian Territory, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska 
and Wyoming. On the 27th of November, 1868, 
he fought the battle of the Wachita, in the Indian 
Territory, and inflicted such defeat on the Indians 
that the entire tribe of Cheyennes were compelled' 
to return to their reservation. From 1 871 to 1873 
he was on duty with his regiment in Kentucky. 
In the spring of 1873 he was ordered with the 
Seventh Cavalry to Dakota, and left Fort Rice on 
an expedition to the Yellowstone. On that river, 
near the mouth of Tongue River, he fought the 
Sioux with his regiment on August 4, and on the 
I ith he had another engagement three miles below 
the mouth of the Big Horn. General Custer 
solicited permission to conduct an expedition into 
the Black Hills, at that time unvisited by the white 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 2 1 

man ; and in July, 1874, he left Fort Lincoln, 
Dakota, and opened an unexplored country to 
miners and settlers. On May 15 General Custer 
left Fort Lincoln in command of his reofiment. 
accompanying an expedition against the confeder- 
ated Sioux tribes. The pursuit of the Indians was 
carried to the Little Big Horn River, a region 
almost entirely unknown. It had long been the 
favorite spot for their encampments, and there 
was afterward ascertained to be nine thousand in 
their villages stretched along the river. The Gov- 
ernment expedition numbered one thousand one 
hundred men. As there were no means of ascer- 
taining the strength of the savages. General Custer 
was sent with his regiment to pursue a trail. On 
June 25 he reached the vicinity of what was sup- 
posed by friendly Indian scouts, who accompanied 
the column, to be the only Indian village. An 
attack by a portion of the regiment, two hundred 
troopers in all, was made, and followed by a 
repulse, ending in a retreat from the enemy. 
General Custer with two hundred and seventy- 
seven of his men charged on another part of the 
village, and fought against terrible odds, expect- 
ing momentarily to be joined by the other portion 
of the regiment, that were then in retreat. At the 
end of an engagement that is supposed to have 
lasted about forty-five minutes, every voice was 



2 2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

silenced, and General Custer lay among his 
devoted followers (his brothers, Colonel Tom and 
Boston Custer ; his brother-in-law. Lieutenant 
James Calhoun ; his nephew, Armstrong Reed) 
in the " Bivouac of the Dead." 

He was buried with his comrades on the battle- 
field ; but, in accordance with a request made 
years previous, to his wife, he was laid with mili- 
tary ceremonies at West Point in 1877. In August, 
1879, ^^s ^^^^ battle-field was made a National 
cemetery, and through the interest of his friend, 
Major-General Meigs, then the quartermaster-gen- 
eral, a monument was erected by Government to 
the memory of General Custer and all who fell in 
the battle of the Little Big Horn. The name of 
each officer and soldier is carved in the granite, 
and its shaft does sentry duty over ground en- 
riched by the precious blood of the heroes who 
fell there in the year of the nation's Centennial. 

In personal appearance General Custer had 
marked individuality. It was not due to the fact that 
his dress was a costume he chose during the war, 
(and was followed in some of its details by his 
Third Division of Cavalry), or that he assumed a 
campaigning garb of buckskin on the frontier. 
Neither was it the result of the flowing locks that 
his boyish freak allowed to grow during the w^ar, 
and, though his head was closely cropped in garri- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER, 23 

son life on the plains, he left the hair uncut while 
campaigning. There was still an individuality 
that marked him — walking, riding, standing; ges- 
tures wholly his own ; quick, impulsive move- 
ments, entirely unstudied ; and indescribable 
peculiarities that were so marked, it was seldom 
any one saw a resemblance in any one else to 
General Custer. A broad hat, navy blue shirt 
with wide collar, and red neck-tie, were distinctive 
features of the costume. He was not quite six 
feet, though he looked it; broad shouldered, well 
proportioned, and weighing as a rule 170 pounds. 
His body was so lithe, his motions so quick, there 
was no deed of the expert Indian rider that 
General Custer could not execute. He was the 
strongest man but one while at West Point; and 
using neither liquor nor tobacco, he was able to 
endure heat, cold, privation of every kind, with 
no apparent recognition of the hardships. His 
hair and mustache were golden in tint; his blue 
eyes were deep set under eyebrows that were 
older than his face. His expression was thought- 
ful, and but for the sparkle of his ever youthful 
eyes, the face might have remained so in conver- 
sation. He was studious in his tastes. The 
activity of war life interrupted all such pursuits, 
but in the quiet of the winters in a frontier 
garrison, he resumed his study and reading. 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 

He contributed articles on hunting to the news- 
papers devoted to out - door sports, and wrote 
papers for the Galaxy that were afterward 
pubhshed in book form, under the title of '' My 
Life on the Plains." He was engaged on a series 
of papers on the war, for the Galaxy, when his 
last campaign took place. He was an ardent 
sportsman, and accounted more than an ordinary 
shot. His domestic life, when frontier days at 
last gave him a semblance of a home during the 
winter months, was one of contentment, which 
was rather surprising, when it is known that 
fourteen years out of the thirty-seven of his short life 
were spent in the active campaigns of the war 
and the frontier. He revered religion, and was so 
broad that every one's belief was sacred to him. 
He dearly loved the society of children when they 
were able to chatter with him; his deference for the 
aged was inborn, and intensified by his love for 
his aged parents; he honored womankind; and he 
loved animals with such devotion that he was 
never without having them about him if he could 
help it. Impetuous and daring as his life was, he 
declared that no step was ever taken without an 
instant looking upon all sides of the question. His 
actions, quick as they were always, were the result 
of an activity of brain that took in a situation 
wnth marvelous speed. General Custer's treat- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL CUSTER. 



25 



ment of his enemies was more after the manner 

of a man of mature years, but it was the result 

of a discipUne of self by that impetuous character, 

who endeavored to remember that " to forgive 

is Divine." 

Elizabeth B. Custer, 

55 West Tenth Street, 

New York City. 



Thanks are due Captain George F. Price, Fifth United States 
Cavalry, for extracts containing dates and strictly military details, 
from the excellent sketch of his comrade in his book "Across the 
Continent with the Fifth Cavalry." D. Van Nostrand, Publisher. 

E. B. C. 




TEXAS IxN 1866 AND IN 1886. 
26 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



CHAPTER I. 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC OFF FOR 

TEXAS — TWENTY MINUTES FOR DINNER HISTORY 

OF ELIZA DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI A CREVASSE 

GENERAL CUSTER MEETING CONFEDERATE GENERAL 
HOOD. 

f^ ENERAL CUSTER was given scant time, 
^^ after the last gun of the v^ar was fired, to 
realize the blessings of peace. While others has- 
tened to discard the well-worn uniforms, and don 
again the dress of civilians, hurrying to the cars, 
and groaning over the slowness of the fast-flying 
trains that bore them to their homes, my husband 
was almost breathlessly preparing for a long jour- 
ney to Texas. He did not even see the last of 
that grand review of the 23d and 24th of May, 
1865. On the first day he was permitted to doff 
his hat and bow low, as he proudly led that superb 
body of men, the Third Division of Cavalry, in 



28 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

front of the grand stand, where sat the " powers 
that be." Along the hne of the division, each sol- 
dier straightened himself in the saddle, and felt the 
proud blood fill his veins, as he realized that he 
was one of those who, in six months, had taken 1 1 1 
of the enemy's guns, sixty-five battle-flags, and up- 
w^ard of 10,000 prisoners of war, while they had 
never lost a flag, or failed to capture a gun for 
which they fought. 

In the afternoon of that memorable day General 
Custer and his staff rode to the outskirts of Wash- 
ington, where his beloved Third Cavalry Division 
had encamped after returning from taking part in 
the review. The trumpet was sounded, and the 
call brought these war-worn veterans oat once 
more, not for a charge, not for duty, but to say 
that word which we who have been compelled to 
live in its mournful sound so many years, dread 
even to write. Down the line rode their yellow- 
haired " boy general," waving his hat, but setting 
his teeth and trying to hold with iron nerve the 
quivering muscles of his speaking face ; keeping 
his eyes wide open, that the moisture dimming 
their vision might not gather and fall. Cheer af- 
ter cheer rose on that soft spring air. Some enthu- 
siastic voice started up afresh, before the hurrahs 
were done, " A tiger for old Curley ! " Off came 
the hats again, and up went hundreds of arms, 



THE SOLDIERS' GOOD-BY. 



29 



waving the good-by and wafting innumerable 
blessings after the man who was sending them 
home in a blaze of glory, with a record of which 
they might boast around their firesides. I began to 
realize, as I watched this sad parting, the truth of 
what the General had been telling me : he held 
that no friendship was like that cemented by mu- 
tual danger on the battle-field. 

The soldiers, accustomed to suppression through 
strict military discipline, now vehemently express- 
ed their feelings ; and though it gladdened the 
General's heart, it was still the hardest sort of 
work to endure it all without show of emotion. 
As he rode up to where I was waiting, he could 
not, dared not, trust himself to speak to me. To 
those intrepid men he was indebted for his suc- 
cess. Their unfailing trust in his judgment, 
their willingness to follow where he led — ah ! he 
knew well that one looks upon such men but once 
in a lifetime. Some of the soldiers called out for 
the General's wife. The staff urged me to ride 
forward to the troops, as it was but a little thing 
thus to respond to their good-by. I tried to do so, 
but after a few steps, I begged those beside whom 
I rode to take me back to where we had been stand- 
ing. I was too overcome, from having seen the 
suffering on my husband's face, to endure any 
more sorrow. 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



As the officers gathered about the General and 
wrung his hand in parting, to my surprise the sol- 
diers gave me a cheer. Though very grateful for 
the tribute to me as their acknowledged comrade, 
I did not feel that I deserved it. Hardships such 
as they had suffered for a principle, require a far 
higher order of character than the same hardships 
endured when the motive is affection. 

Once more the General leaped into the saddle, 
and we rode rapidly out of sight. How glad I 
was, as I watched the set features of my husband's 
face, saw his eyes fixed immovably in front of 
him, listened in vain for one word from his over- 
burdened heart, that I, being a woman, need not 
tax every nerve to suppress emotion, but could 
let the tears stream down my face, on all our 
silent way back to the city. 

Then began the gathering of our " traps," a 
hasty collection of a few suitable things for a 
Southern climate, orders about shipping the 
horses, a wild tearing around of the improvident, 
thoughtless staff — good fighters, but poor pro- 
viders for themselves. Most of them were young 
men, for whom my husband had applied when he 
was made a brigadier. His first step after his 
promotion was to write home for his schoolmates, 
or select aides from his early friends then in 
service. It was a comfort, when I found mvself 



ORDERED TO TEXAS. -»! 

grieving over the parting with my husband's Divi- 
sion, that our mihtary family were to go with us. 
At dark we were on the cars, with our faces turned 
southward. To General Custer this move had 
been unexpected. General Sheridan knew that 
he needed little time to decide, so he sent for him 
as soon as we encamped at Arlington, after our 
march up from Richmond, and asked if he would 
like to take command of a division of cavalry on 
the Red River in Louisiana, and march throughout 
Texas, with the possibility of eventually entering 
Mexico. Our Government was just then thinking 
it was high time the French knew that if there 
was any invasion of Mexico, with an idea of a 
complete " gobbling up " of that country, the one 
to do the seizure, and gather in the spoils was 
Brother Jonathan. Very wisely, General Custer 
kept this latter part of the understanding why he 
was sent South from the " weepy " part of his 
family. He preferred transportation by steamer, 
rather than to be floated southward by floods of 
feminine tears. All I knew was, that Texas, hav- 
ing been so outside of the limit where the armies 
marched and fought, was unhappily unaware that 
the war was over, and continued a career of bush- 
whacking and lawlessness that was only tolerated 
from necessity before the surrender, and must 
now cease. It was considered expedient to fit out 



32 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

two detachments of cavalry, and start them on a 
march through the northern and southern portions 
of Texas, as a means of informing that isolated 
State that depredations and raids might come to 
an end. In my mind, Texas then seemed the 
stepping-off place ; but I was indifferent to the 
points of the compass, so long as I was not left 
behind. 

The train in which we set out was crowded 
with a joyous, rollicking, irrepressible throng of 
discharged officers and soldiers, going home to 
make their swords into ploughshares. Every- 
body talked with everybody, and all spoke at once. 
The Babel was unceasing night and day; there 
was not a vein that was not bursting with joy. 
The swift blood rushed into the heart and out 
again laden with one glad thought. "The war is 
over ! " At the stations, soldiers tumbled out and 
rushed into some woman's waiting arms, while 
bands tooted excited welcomes, no one instrument 
according with another, because of throats over- 
charged already with bursting notes of patriotism 
that would not be set music. The customary train 
of street gamins, who imitate all parades and 
promptly copy the pomp of the circus and other 
processions, stepped off in a mimic march, follow- 
ing the conquering heroes as they were lost to 
our sight down the street, going home. 



WELCOMING WOUNDED HEROES. 



33 



Sometimes the voices of the hilarious crowd at 
the station were stilled, and a hush of reverent 
silence preceded the careful lifting from the car 
of a stretcher bearing a form broken and bleeding 
from wounds, willingly borne, that the home to 
which he was coming might be unharmed. 
Tender women received and hovered lovingly- 
over the precious freight, strong arms carried him 
away ; and we contrasted the devoted care, the 
love that would teach new ways to heal, with the 
condition of the poor fellows we had left in the 
crowded Washington hospitals, attended only by 
strangers. Some of the broken-to-pieces soldiers 
were on our train, so deftly mended that they 
stumped their way down the platform, and began 
their one-legged tramp through life, amidst the loud 
huzzas that a maimed hero then received. They 
even joked about their misfortunes. I remember 
one undaunted fellow, with the fresh color of 
buoyant youth beginning again to dye his cheek, 
even after the amputation of a leg, which so 
depletes the system. He said some grave words 
of wisdom to me in such a roguish way, and fol- 
lowed up his counsel by adding, " You ought to 
heed such advice from a man with one foot in the 
grave." 

We missed all the home-coming, all the glorifi- 
cation awarded to the hero. General Custer said 



34 TENTING CN THE PLAINS. 

no word of regret. He had accepted the offer for 
further active service, and gratefully thanked his 
chief for giving him the opportunity. I, however, 
should have liked to have him get some of the 
celebrations that our country was then showering 
on its defenders. I missed the bonfires, the pro- 
cessions, the public meeting of distinguished citi- 
zens, who eloquently thanked the veterans, the 
editorials that lauded each townsman's deed, the 
poetry in the corner of the newspaper that was 
dedicated to a hero, the overflow of a woman's 
heart singing praise to her military idol. But the 
cannon were fired, the drums beat, the music 
sounded for all but us. Offices of trust were 
offered at once to men coming home to private 
life, and towns and cities felt themselves honored 
because some one of their number had gone out 
and made himself so glorious a name that his very 
home became celebrated. He was made the 
mayor, or the Congressman, and given a home 
which it would have taken him many years of 
hard work to earn. Song, story and history have 
long recounted what a hero is to a woman. Imagi- 
nation pictured to my eye troops of beautiful 
women gathering around each gallant soldier on 
his return. The adoring eyes spoke admiration, 
while the tongue subtly wove, in many a sentence, 
its meed of praise. The General and his staff of 



THE ''LADIES' CAR'' OF OTHER DAYS. 



35 



boys, loving and reverencing women, missed what 
men wisely count the sweetest of adulation. One 
weather-beaten slip of a girl had to do all their 
banqueting, cannonading, bonfiring, brass-band- 
ing, and general hallelujahs all the way to Texas, 
and — yes, even after we got there ; for the South- 
ern women, true to their idea of patriotism, turned 
their pretty faces away from our handsome fel- 
lows, and resisted, for a long time, even the mildest 
flirtation. 

The drawing-room car was then unthought of 
in the minds of those who plan new luxuries, as 
our race demand more ease and elegance. There 
was a ladies' car, to which no men unaccompanied 
by women were admitted. It was never so full as 
the other coaches, and was much cleaner and bet- 
ter ventilated. 

This was at first a damper to the enjoyment of 
a military family, who lost no opportunity of being 
together, for it compelled the men to remain in 
the other cars. The scamp among us devised a 
plan to outwit the brakemen ; he borrowed my 
bag just before we were obliged to change cars, 
and after waiting till the General and I were safely 
seated, boldly walked up and demanded entrance, 
on the plea that he had a lady inside. This scheme 
worked so well that the others took up the cue, 
and my cloak, bag, umbrella, lunch-basket, and 



36 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

parcel of books and papers were distributed among^ 
the rest before we stopped, and were used to ob- 
tain entrance into the better car. Even our faith- 
ful servant, Eliza, was unexpectedly overwhelmed 
with urgent offers of assistance ; for she always 
went with us, and sat by the door. This plan was 
a great success, in so far as it kept our party to- 
gether, but it proved disastrous to me, as the 
scamp forgot my bag at some station, and I was 
minus all those hundred and one articles that seem 
indispensable to a traveler's comfort. In that plight 
I had to journey until, in some merciful detention,, 
we had an hour in which to seek out a shop, and 
hastily make the necessary purchases. 

At one of our stops for dinner we all made the 
usual rush for the dining-hall, as in the confusion 
of over-laden trains at that excited time it was 
necessary to hurry, and, besides, as there were de- 
lays and irregularities in traveling, on account of 
the home-coming of the troops, we never knew 
how long it might be before the next eating-house 
was reached. The General insisted upon Eliza's 
going right with us, as no other table was provided. 
The proprietor, already rendered indifferent to 
people's comfort by his extraordinary gains, said 
there was no table for servants. Eliza, the best- 
bred of maids, begged to go back dinnerless into 
the car, but the General insisted on her sitting 



TWENTY MINUTES FOR A DISTURBED DINNER. 



2>7 



down between us at the crowded table. A posi- 
tion so unusual, and to her so totally out of place, 
made her appetite waver, and it vanished entirely 
when the proprietor came, and told the General 
that no colored folks could be allowed at his table. 
My husband quietly replied that he had been ob- 
liged to give the woman that place, as the house 
had provided no other. The determined man still 
stood threateningly over us, demanding her remov- 
al, and Eliza uneasily and nervously tried to go. 
I trembled, and the fork failed to carry the food, 
owing to a very wobbly arm. The General firmly 
refused, the staff rose about us, and all along the 
table up sprang men we had supposed to be citi- 
zens, as they were in the dress of civilians. 
"General, stand your ground; we'll back yo.u; the 
woman shall have food." How little we realize in 
these piping times of peace, how great a flame a 
little fire kindled in those agitating days. The 
proprietor slunk back to his desk; the General and 
his hungry staff went on eating as calmly as ever ; 
Eliza hung her embarrassed head, and her mistress 
idly twirled her useless fork — while the proprietor 
made $1.50 clear gain on two women that were too 
frightened to swallow a mouthful. I spread a sand- 
wich for Eliza, while the General, mindful of the 
returning hunger of the terrified woman, and per- 
fectly indifferent as to making himself ridiculous 



^8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

with parcels, marched by the infuriated but subdued 
bully, with either a whole pie or some such modest 
capture in his hand. We had put some hours of 
travel between ourselves and the " twenty-minutes- 
for-dinner " place which came so near being a 
battle-ground, before Eliza could eat what we 
had brought for her. 

I wonder if any one is waiting for me to say 
that this incident happened south of the Mason 
and Dixon line. It did not. It was in Ohio ; I 
don't remember the place. After all, the memory 
over which one complains, when he finds how 
little he can recall, has its advantages. It hope- 
lessly buries the names of persons and places,, 
when one starts to tell tales out of school. It is 
like extracting the fangs from a rattlesnake ; the 
reptile, like the story, may be very disagreeable, 
but I can only hope that a tale unadorned with 
names or places is as harmless as a snake with its 
poison withdrawn. 

I must stop a moment and give our Eliza, on 
whom this battle was waged, a little space in this 
story, for she occupied no small part in the events 
of the six years after ; and when she left us and 
took an upward step in life by marrying a colored 
lawyer, I could not reconcile myself to the loss ; 
and though she has lived through all the grandeur 
of a union with a man " who gets a heap of 



ELIZA'S BRONZE TINT. 39 

money for his speeches in poUtics, and brass bands 
to meet him at the stations, Miss Libbie," she came 
to my little home not long since with tears of joy 
illuminating- the bright bronze of her expressive 
face. It reminded me so of the first time I knew 
that the negro race regarded shades of color as a 
distinctive feature, a beauty or a blemish, as it 
might be. Eliza stood in front of a bronze 
medallion of my husband when it was first sent 
from the artist's in 1865, and amused him hugely, 
by saying, in that partnership manner she had in 
our affairs, " Why, Ginnel, it's jest my color." 
After that, I noticed that she referred to her race 
according to the deepness of tint, telling me, with 
scorn, of one of her numerous suitors : "Why, Miss 
Libbie, he needent think to shine up to me ; he's 
nothing but a black African." I am thus intro- 
ducing Eliza, color and all, that she may not seem 
the vague character of other days ; and whoever 
chances to meet her will find in her a good war 
historian, a modest chronicler of a really self- 
denying and courageous life. It was rather a 
surprise to me that she was not an old woman 
when I saw her again this autumn, after so many 
years, but she is not yet fifty. I imagine she did 
so much mothering in those days when she com- 
forted me in my loneliness, and quieted me in 
my frights, that I counted her old even then. 



40 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Eliza requests that she be permitted to make 
her little bow to the reader, and repeat a wish of 
hers that I take great pains in quoting her, and 
not represent her as saying, " like field-hands, 
whar and thar!' She says her people in Virginia, 
whom she reverences and loves, always taught 
her not to say "them words; and if they should 
see what I have told you they'd feel bad to think 
I forgot." If whar and thar appear occasion- 
ally in my efforts to transfer her literally to these 
pages, it is only a lapsus lingtice on her part. 
Besides, she has lived North so long now, there 
is not that distinctive dialect peculiar to the 
Southern servant. In her excitement, narrating 
our scenes of danger or pleasure or merriment, 
she occasionally drops into expressions that 
belonged to her early life. It is the fault of her 
historian if these phrases get into print. To me 
they are charming, for they are Eliza in undress 
uniform — Eliza without her company manners. 

She describes her leaving the old plantation dur- 
ing war times. " I jined the Ginnel at Amosville, 
Rappahannock County, in August, 1863. Every- 
body was excited over freedom, and I wanted to 
see how it was. Everybody keeps asking me why 
I left. I can't see why they can't recollect what 
war was for, and that we was all bound to try 
and see for ourselves how it was. After the 



A CONTRABAND AS COOK. 



41 



'Mancipation, everybody was a standin' up for 
liberty, and I wasent goin' to stay home when 
everybody etse was a-goin'. The day I came 
into camp, there was a good many other darkies 
from all about our place. We was a standin' 
round waitin' when I first seed the Ginnel. 

" He and Captain Lyon cum up to me, and the 
Ginnel says, ' Well, what's your name ! ' I told 
him Eliza ; and he says, looking me all over fust, 
' Well, Eliza, would you like to cum and live with 
me ? ' I waited a minute, Miss Libbie. I looked 
kim all over, too, and finally I sez, 'I reckon I 
would.' So the bargain was fixed up. But, oh, 
how awful lonesome I was at fust, and I was 
afraid of everything in the shape of war. I used 
to wish myself back on the old plantation with 
my mother. I was mighty glad when you cum, 
Miss Libbie. Why, sometimes I never sot eyes 
on a woman for weeks at a time." 

Eliza's story of her war life is too long for these 
pages ; but in spite of her confession of being so 
" 'fraid," she was a marvel of courage. She was cap- 
tured by the enemy, escaped, and found her way 
back after sunset to the General's camp. She had 
strange and narrow escapes. She says, quaintly: 
" Well, Miss Libbie, I set in to see the war, begin- 
ning and end. There was many niggers that cut 
into the cities and huddled up thar, and laid around 



42 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and saw hard times ; but I went to see the end^ 
and I stuck it out. I alius thought this, that I 
didn't set down to wait to have 'em all free me.. 
I helped to free myself. I was all ready to step to 
the front whenever I was called upon, even if I 
didn't shoulder the musket. Well, I went to the 
end, and there's many folks says that a woman 
can't follow the army without throwing themselves 
away, but I know better. I went in, and I cum out 
with the respect of the men and the officers." 

Eliza often cooked under fire, and only lately 
one of the General's staff, recounting war days, de- 
scribed her as she was preparing the General's din- 
ner in the field. A shell would burst near her; she 
would turn her head in anger at being disturbed^ 
unconscious that she was observed, begin to growl 
to herself about being obliged to move, but take 
up her kettle and frying-pan, march farther away,, 
make a new fire, and begin cooking as unper- 
turbed as if it were an ordinary disturbance in- 
stead of a sky filled with bits of falling shell. I 
do not repeat that polite fiction of having been on 
the spot, as neither the artist nor I had Eliza's grit 
or pluck ; but we arranged the camp-kettle, and 
Eliza fell into the exact expression, as she volubly 
began telling the tale of "how mad those busting 
shells used to make her." It is an excellent like- 
ness, even though Eliza objects to the bandanna^ 




ELIZA COOKING UNDER FIRK. 



44 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

which she has abandoned m her new position ; 
and I must not forget that I found her one day 
turning her head critically from side to side look- 
ing at her picture ; and, out of regard to her, will 
mention that her nose, of which she is very proud, 
is, she fears, a touch too flat in the sketch. She 
speaks of her dress as " completely whittled out 
with bullets," but she would like me to mention 
that " she don't wear them rags now." 

When Eliza reached New York this past 
autumn, she told me, when I asked her to choose 
where she would go, as my time was to be entirely 
given to her, that she wanted first to go to the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel and see if it looked just the 
same as it did " when you was a bride, Miss 
Libbie, and the Ginnel took you and me there on 
leave of absence." We went through the halls 
and drawing-rooms, narrowly watched by the 
major-domo, who stands guard over tramps, but 
fortified by my voice, she " oh'd " and " ah'd " 
over its grandeur to her heart's content. One day 
I left her in Madison Square, to go on a business 
errand, and cautioned her not to stray away. 
When I returned, I asked anxiously, "Did any 
one speak to you, Eliza ?" " EveryhoAy, Miss 
Libbie," as nonchalant and as complacent as if it 
were her idea of New York hospitality. Then she 
begged me to go round the Square, "to hunt a 



ELIZA'S DELIGHT OVER THE CITY. 



45 



lady from Avenue A, who see'd you pass with 
me, Miss Libbie, and said she knowed you was a 
lady, though I reckon she couldn't 'count for me 
and you bein' together." We found the Avenue 
A lady, and I was presented, and to her satisfac- 
tion admired the baby that had been brought over 
to that blessed breathing-place of our city. 
- The Elevated railroad was a surprise to Eliza. 
She " didn't believe it would be so high." At that 
celebrated curve on the Sixth Avenue line, where 
Monsieur de Lesseps even exclaimed, " Mon Dieu ! 
but the Americans are a brave people," the poor 
frightened woman clung to me and whispered, 
" Miss Libbie, couldn't we get down any way ? 
Miss Libbie, I'se seed enough. I can tell the folks at 
home all about it nozu. Oh, I never did 'spect to 
be so near heaven till I went up for good." 

At the Brooklyn Bridge she demurred. She is 
so intelligent that I wanted to have her see the 
shipping, the wharves, the harbor, and the Statue 
of Liberty; but nothing kept her from flight save 
her desire to tell her townspeople that she had 
seen the place where the crank jumped off. The 
policeman, in answer to my inquiry, commanded 
us in martial tones to stay still till he said the word ; 
and when the wagon crossing passed the spot, and 
the maintainer of the peace said " Now ! " Eliza 
shivered, and whispered, ''Now, let's go home, Miss 



46 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Libbie. I dun took the cullud part of the town fo' 
I come ; the white folks hain't seen what I has, 
and they'll be took when I tell 'em ; " and off she 
toddled, for Eliza is not the slender woman I once 
knew her. 

Her description of the Wild West exhibition was 
most droll. I sent her down because we had lived 
through so many of the scenes depicted, and I felt 
sure that nothing would recall so vividly the life on 
the frontier as that most realistic and faithful rep- 
resentation of a western life that has ceased to be, 
with advancing civilization. She went to Mr. 
Cody's tent after the exhibition, to present my 
card of introduction, for he had served as General 
Caster's scout after Eliza left us, and she was, 
therefore, unknown to him except by hearsay. 
They had twenty subjects in common ; for Eliza, 
in her way, was as deserving of praise as was the 
courageous Cody. She was delighted with all 
she saw, and on her return, her description of it, 
mingled with imitations of the voices of the haw- 
kers and the performers, was so incoherent that it 
presented only a confused jumble to my ears. The 
buffalo were a surprise, a wonderful revival to her 
of those hunting-days when our plains were dark- 
ened by the herds. "When the buffalo cum in, I 
was ready to leap up and holler. Miss Libbie ; 
it 'minded me of ole times. They made me 



A VISIT TO THE '< WILD WEST.'' 47 

think of the fifteen the Ginnel fust struck In Kansas. 
He jest pushed down his ole hat, and and went 
after 'em linkety-cHnk. Well, Miss Libbie, when 
Mr. Cody come up, I see at once his back and hips 
was built precisely like the Ginnel, and when I 
come on to his tent, I jest said to him : ' Mr. Buf- 
falo Bill, when you cum up to the stand and 
wheeled round, I said to myself, " Well, if he ain't 
the 'spress image of Ginnel Custer in battle, I never 
seed any one that was." I jest wish he'd come to 
my town and give a show ! He could have the 
hull fair-ground there. My! he could raise money 
so fast t'wouldn't take him long to pay for a church. 
And the shootin' and ridin' ! why, Miss Libbie, 
when I seed one of them ponies brought out, I 
know'd he was one of the hatefullest, sulkiest ponies 
that ever lived. He was a-prancin' and curvin', 
and he just stretched his ole neck and throwed the 
men as fast as ever they got on." 

After we had strolled through the streets for 
many days, Eliza always amusing me by her droll 
comments, she said to me one day: "Miss Libbie, 
you don't take notice, when me and you's walking 
on a-lookin' into shop-windows, and a-gazin' at 
the new things I never see before, how the folks 
does stare at us. But I see 'em a-gazin', and 
I can see 'em a-ponderin' and sayin' to theirsel's, 
'Well, I do declar'! that's a lady, there ain't no 



48 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

manner of doubt. She's one of the bong tong ; 
but whatever she's a-doin' with that old scrub 
nigger, I can't make out.' " I can hardly express 
what a recreation and delight it was to go about 
with this humorous woman and listen to her com- 
ments, her unique criticisms, her grateful delight, 
when she turned on the street to say: "Oh, what 
a good time me and you is having, Miss Libbie, 
and Jiow I will 'stonish them people at home ! '^ 
The best of it all was the manner in which she 
brought back our past, and the hundred small events 
we recalled, which were made more vivid by the 
imitation of voice, walk, gesture, she gave in 
speaking of those we followed in the old march- 
ing days. 

On this journey to Texas some accident hap- 
pened to our engine, and detained us all night. We 
campaigners, accustomed to all sorts of unexpected 
inconveniences, had learned not to mind discom- 
forts. Each officer sank out of sight into his 
great-coat collar, and slept on by the hour, while I 
slumbered till morning, curled up in a heap, thank- 
ful to have the luxury of one seat to myself. We 
rather gloried over the citizens who tramped up 
and down the aisle, groaning and becoming more 
emphatic in their language as the night advanced, 
indulging in the belief that the women were too- 
sound asleep to hear them. I wakened enough ta 



A SUBTERFUGE TO OBTAIN COMFORT. 



49 



hear one old man say, fretfully, and with many ad- 
jectives : "Just see how those army folks sleep; 
they can tumble down anywhere, while I am so 
lame and sore, from the cramped-up place I am in, 
I can't even doze." As morning came we noticed 
our scamp at the other end of the car, with his legs 
stretched comfortably on the seat turned over in 
front of him. All this unusual luxury he accounted 
for afterward, by telling us the trick that his inge- 
nuity had suggested to obtain more room. "You 
see," the wag said, "two old codgers sat down in 
front of my pal and me, late last night, and went 
on counting up their gains in the rise of corn, owing 
to the war, which, to say the least, was harrowmg 
to us poor devils who had fought the battles that 
had made them rich and left us without a ' red.' 
I concluded, if that was all they had done for their 
country, two of its brave defenders had more of a 
right to the seat than they had. I just turned 

to H and began solemnly to talk about what 

store I set by my old army coat, then on the seat 
they occupied ; said I couldn't give it up, though I 
had been obliged to cover a comrade who had died 
of small-pox, I not being afraid of contagion, having 
had varioloid. Well, I got that far when the eyes 
of the old galoots started out of their heads, and 
they vamoosed the ranche, I can tell you, and I 
saw them peering through the window at the end 



^O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of the next car, the horror still in their faces." The 
General exploded with merriment. How strange 
it seems, to contrast those noisy, boisterous times, 
when everybody shouted with laughter, called 
loudly from one end of the car to the other, told 
stories for the whole public to hear, and sang war- 
songs, with the quiet, orderly travelers of nowa- 
days, who, even in the tremor of meetmg or part- 
ing, speak below their breath, and, ashamed of 
emotion, quickly wink back to its source the pre- 
historic tear. 

We bade good-by to railroads at Louisville, and 
the journeying south was then made by steamer. 
How peculiar it seemed to us, accustomed as we 
were to lake craft with deep hulls, to see for the 
first time those flat-bottomed boats drawing so lit- 
tle water, with several stories, and upper decks 
loaded with freight. I could hardly rid myself of 
the fear that, being* so top-heavy, we would blow- 
over. The tempests of our western lakes were 
then my only idea of sailing weather. Then the 
long, sloping levees, the preparations for the rise 
of water, the strange sensation, when the river was 
high, of looking over the embankment, down 
upon the earth ! It is a novel feeling to be for the 
first time on a great river, with such a current as 
the Mississippi flowing on above the level of the 
plantations, hemmed in by an embankment ori 



''BURYING A DEAD MAN:' 



51 



either side. Though we saw the manner of its 
construction at one point where the levee was be- 
ing repaired, and found how firmly and substan- 
tially the earth was fortified with stone and logs 
against the river, it still seemed to me an un- 
natural sort of voyaging to be above the level of 
the ground ; and my tremors on the subject, and 
other novel experiences, were instantly made use 
of as a new and fruitful source of practical jokes. 
For instance, the steamer bumped into the shore 
anywhere it happened to be wooded, and an army 
of negroes appeared, running over the gang-plank 
like ants. Sometimes at night the pine torches, 
and the resinous knots burning in iron baskets 
slung over the side of the boat, made a weird and 
gruesome sight, the shadows were so black, the 
streams of light so intense, while the hurrying 
negroes loaded on the wood, under the brutal voice 
of a steamer's mate. Once a negro fell in. They 
made a pretense of rescuing him, gave it up soon, 
and up hurried our scamp to the upper deck to 
tell me the horrible tale. He had good command 
of language, and allowed no scruples to spoil a 
story After that I imagined, at every night 
wood-lading, some poor soul was swept down 
under the boat and off into eternity. The General 
was sorry for me, and sometimes, when I imagined 
the calls of the crew to be the despairing wail of a 



52 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

dying man, he made pilgrimages, for my sake, to 
the lower deck to make sure that no one was 
drowned. My imaginings were not always so re- 
spected, for the occasion gave too good an oppor- 
tunity for a joke, to be passed quietly by. The 
scamp and my husband put their heads together 
soon after this, and prepared a tale for the " old 
lady," as they called me. As we were about to 
make a landing, they ran to me and said, " Come, 
Libbie, hurry up ! hurry up ! You'll miss the fun 
if you don't scrabble." "Miss what?" was my 
very natural question, and exactly the reply they 
wanted me to make. "Why, they're going to 
bury a dead man when we land." I exclaimed in 
horror, " Another man drowned ? how can you 
speak so irreverently of death?" With a " do you 
suppose the mate cares for one nigger more or 
less ?" they dragged me to the deck. There I saw 
the great cable which was used to tie us up, fast- 
ened to a strong spar, the two ends of which were 
buried in the bank. The ground was hollowed 
out underneath the centre, and the rope slipped 
under to fasten it around the log. After I had 
watched this process of securing our boat to the 
shore, these irrepressibles said, solemnly, " The 
sad ceremony is now ended, and no other will take 
place till we tie up at the next stop." When it 
dawned upon me that " tying up " was called, in 



A MISSISSIPPI STEAMER. 



53 



steamer vernacular, " burying- a dead man." my 
eyes returned to their proper place in the sockets, 
breath came back, and indignation filled my soul. 
Language deserts us at such moments, and I re- 
sorted to force. As there was no one near, a few 
well-deserved thumps were rained down on the 
yellow head of the commanding officer, who bore 
this merited punishment quite meekly, only sug- 
gesting that the next time the avenger felt called 
upon to administer such telling whacks, it might 
be done with the hand on which there were no 
rings. 

The Ruth was accounted one of the largest and 
most beautiful steamers that had ever been on the 
Mississippi River, her expenses being $i,ooo a day. 
The decorations were sumptuous, and we enjoyed 
every luxury. We ate our dinners to very good 
music, which the boat furnished. We had been on 
plain fare too long not to watch with eagerness 
the arrival of the procession of white-coated negro 
waiters, who each day came in from the pastry- 
cook with some new device in cake, ices, or con- 
fectionery. There was a beautiful Ruth gleaning 
in a field, in the painting that filled the semicircle 
over the entrance of the cabin. Ruths with 
sheaves held up the branches of the chandeliers, 
while the pretty gleaner looked out from the glass 
of the stateroom doors. The captain being very 



54 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



patient as well as polite, we pervaded every cor- 
ner of the great boat. The General and his boy- 
soldiers were too accustomed to activity to be 
quiet in the cabin. Even that unapproachable 
man at the wheel yielded to our longing eyes, and 
let us into his round tower. Oh, how good he was 
to me ! The General took me up there, and the 
pilot made a place for us, where, with my bit of 
work, I listened for hours to his stories. My hus- 
band made fifty trips up and down, sometimes de- 
tained when we were nearingan interesting point, 
to hear the story of the crevasse. Such tales were 
thrilling enough even for him, accustomed as he 
then was to the most exciting scenes. The pilot 
pointed out places where the river, wild with the 
rush and fury of spring freshets, had burst its way 
through the levees, and, sweeping over a penin- 
sula, returned to the channel beyond, utterly an- 
nihilating and sinking out of sight forever the 
ground where happy people had lived on their 
plantations. It was a sad time to take that jour- 
ney, and even in the midst of our intense enjoy- 
ment of the novelty of the trip, the freedom from 
anxiety, and the absence of responsibility of any 
kind, I recall how the General grieved over the 
destruction of plantations by the breaks in the 
levee. The work on these embankments was done 
by assessment, I think. They were cared for as 



BREAKING OF A LEVEE, 55 

our roads and bridges are kept in order, and when 
men were absent in the war, only the negroes were 
left to attend to the repairing. But the inunda- 
tions then were slight, compared with many from 
which the State has since suffered. In 1874 thirty 
parishes were either wholly or partly overflowed 
by an extraordinary rise in the river. On our trip 
we saw one plantation after another submerged, 
the grand old houses abandoned, and standing in 
lakes of water, while the negro quarters and barns 
were almost out of sight. Sometimes the cattle 
huddled on a little rise of ground, helpless and 
pitiful. We wished, as we used to do in that 
beautiful Shenandoah Valley, that if wars must 
come, the devastation of homes might be avoided. 
And I usually added, with one of the totally im- 
practicable suggestions conjured up by a woman, 
that battles might be fought in desert places. 

A Southern woman who afterward entertained 
us, described, in the graphic and varied language 
which is their gift, the breaking of the levee on 
their own plantation. How stealthily the small 
stream of water crept on and on, until their first 
warning was its serpent-like progress past their 
house. Then the excitement and rush of all the 
household to the crevasse, the hasty gathering in 
of the field -hands, and the homely devices for 
stopping the break until more substantial materials 



56 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

could be gathered. It was a race for life on all 
sides. Each one, old or young, knew that his 
safety depended on the superhuman effort of the 
first hour of danger. In our safe homes we scarcely 
realize what it would be to look out from our win- 
dows upon, what seemed to me, a small and insuf- 
ficient mound of earth stretching along the front- 
age of an estate, and know that it was our only 
rampart against a rushing flood, which seemed 
human in its revengeful desire to engulf us. 

The General was intensely interested in those 
portions of the country where both naval and land 
warfare had been carried on. At Island No. 10 
and Fort Pillow especially, there seemed, even then, 
no evidence that fighting had gone on so lately. 
The luxuriant vegetation of the South had covered 
the fortifications ; nature seemed hastening to 
throw a mantle over soil that had so lately been 
reddened with such a precious dye. The fighting 
had been so desperate at the latter point, it is 
reported the Confederate General Forrest said : 
" The river was dyed with the blood of the 
slaughtered for two hundred yards." 

At one of our stops on the route, the Confederate 
General Hood came on board, to go to a town a 
short distance below, and my husband, hearing he 
was on the boat, hastened to seek him out and in- 
troduce himself. Such reunions have now become 



A FEDERAL AATD COMFEDERA TE GEiVERAL MEET. 



57 



common, I am thankful to say, but I confess to 
watching curiously every expression of those men, 
as it seemed very early, in those times of excited 
and vehement conduct, to begin such overtures. 
And yet I did not forget that my husband sent 
messages of friendship to his classmates on the 
other side, throughout the war. As I watched this 
meeting, they looked, while they grasped each 
other's hand, as if they were old-time friends 
happily united. After they had carried on an ani- 
mated conversation for a while, my husband, 
always thinking how to share his enjoyment, hur- 
ried to bring me into the group. General Custer 
had already taught me, even in those bitter times, 
that he knew his classmates fought from their con- 
victions of right, and that, now the war was over, 
I must not be adding fuel to a fire that both sides 
should strive to smother. 

General Hood was tall, fair, dignified and sol- 
dierly. He used his crutch with difficulty, and it 
was an effort for him to rise when I was presented. 
We three instantly resumed the war-talk that my 
coming had interrupted. The men plied each 
other with questions as to the situation of troops at 
certain engagements, and the General fairly bom- 
barded General Hood with inquiries about the 
action on their side in different campaigns. At 
that time nothing had been written for Northern 



5^ TENTim ON THE PLAINS. 

papers and magazines by the South. All we knew 
was from the brief accounts in the Southern news- 
papers that our pickets exchanged, and from papers 
captured or received from Europe by way of 
blockade-runners. We were greatly amused by 
the comical manner in which General Hood de- 
scribed his efforts to suit himself to an artificial leg, 
after he had contributed his own to his beloved 
cause. In his campaigns he was obliged to carry 
an extra one, in case of accident to the one he 
wore, which was strapped to his led horse. He 
asked me to picture the surprise of the troops who 
captured all the reserve horses at one time, and 
found this false leg of his suspended from the 
saddle. He said he had tried five, at different 
times, to see which of the inventions was lightest 
and easiest to wear; " and I am obliged to confess, 
Mrs. Custer, much as you may imagine it goes 
against me to do so, that of the five — English, 
German, French, Yankee and Confederate — the 
Yankee leg was the best of all." When General 
Custer carefully helped the maimed hero down 
the cabin stairs and over the gangway, we bade 
him good-by with real regret — so quickly do sol- 
diers make and cement a friendship when both 
find the same qualities to admire in each other. 

The novelty of Mississippi travel kept even our 
active, restless party interested. One of our 



CROSSIA'G SAND BARS. 



59 



number played guitar accompaniments, and we 
sang choruses on deck at night, forgetting that the 
war-songs might grate on the ears of some of the 
people about us. The captain and steamer's crew 
allowed us to roam up and down the boat at will, 
and when we found, by the map or crew, that we 
were about to touch the bank in a hitherto un- 
visited State, we were the first to run over the 
gang-plank and caper up and down the soil, to add 
a new State to our fast-swelling list of those in 
which we had been. We rather wondered, though, 
what we would do if asked questions by our 
elders at home as to what we thought of Arkansas, 
Mississippi and Tennessee, as we had only scam- 
pered on and off the river-bank of those States 
while the wooding went on. We were like chil- 
dren let out of school, and everything interested us. 
Even the low water was an event. The sudden 
stop of our great steamer, which, large as it was, 
drew but a few feet of water, made the timbers 
groan and the machinery creak. Then we took 
ourselves to the bow, where the captain, mate and 
deck-hands were preparing for a siege, as the force 
of the engines had ploughed us deep into a sand- 
bar. There was wrenching, veering and strug- 
gling of the huge boat ; and at last a resort to 
those two spars which seem to be so uselessly at- 
tached to each side of the forward deck of the 



6o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

river steamers. These were swung- out and 
plunged into the bank, the rope and tackle put 
into use, and with the aid of these stilts we were 
skipped over the sand-bar into the deeper water. 
It was on that journey that I first heard the 
name Mr. Clemens took as his noni deplume. 
The droning voice of the sailor taking soundings, 
as we slowly crept through low water, called out, 
" Mark twain !" and the pilot answered by steer- 
ing the boat according to the story of the plumb- 
line. 

The trip on a Mississippi steamer, as we knew 
it, is now one of the things of the past. It was 
accounted then, and before the war, our most luxu- 
rious mode of travel. Every one was sociable, 
and in the constant association of the long trip, 
some warm friendships sprung up. We had then 
our first acquaintance with Bostonians as well as 
with Southerners. Of course, it was too soon for 
Southern women, robbed of home, and even the 
necessities of life, by the cruelty of war, to be 
wholly cordial. We were more and more amazed 
at the ignorance in the South concerning the 
North. A young girl, otherwise intelligent, thawed 
out enough to confess to me that she had really no 
idea that Yankee soldiers were like their own 
physically. She imagined they would be as 
widely different as black from white, and a sort 



RIVER SCENERY 6 1 

of combination of gorilla and chimpanzee. Gun- 
boats had but a short time before moored at the 
levee that bounded her grandmother's plantation, 
and the negroes ran into the house crying the ter- 
rible news of the approach of the enemy. The 
very thought of a Yankee was abhorrent ; but the 
girl, more absorbed with curiosity than fear, slip- 
ped out of the house to where a view of the walk 
from the landing was to be had, and, seeing a 
naval officer approaching, raced back to her grand- 
mother, crying out in surprise at finding a being 
like unto her own people, "Why, it's a man." 

As we approached New Orleans, the plantations 
grew richer. The palmetto and the orange, by 
which we are " twice blessed " in its simultaneous 
blossom and fruit ; the oleander, treasured in con- 
servatories at home, here growing to tree size 
along the country roads, all charmed us. The wide 
galleries around the two stories of the houses were 
a delight. The course of our boat was often near 
enough the shore for us to see the family gathered 
around the supper-table spread on the upper gal- 
lery, which was protected from the sun by blinds, 
or shades of matting. 

We left the steamer at New Orleans with 
regret. It seems, even now, that it is rather too 
bad we have grown into so hurried a race that 
we cannot spare the time to travel as leisurely 



62 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

or luxuriously as we then did. Even pleasure- 
seekers going off for a tour, when they are 
not restricted by time nor mode of journeying, 
study the time-tables closely, to see by which 
route the quickest passage can be made. 



CHAPTER II. 

NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR GENERAL WINFIELD 

SCOTT UP RED RIVER — ^THE SKILL OF THE PILOTS 

OUR ROMANTIC LOVER AT ALEXANDRIA A 

NEGRO PRAYER-MEETING CONFEDERATE FORTS 

QUICKSANDS ALLIGATOR HUNTING. 

A^T'E v^^ere detained, by orders, for a little time 
in New Orleans, and the General was enthu- 
siastic over the city. All day we strolled through 
the streets, visiting the French quarter, contrasting 
the foreign shop-keepers, who were never too 
hurried to be polite with our brusque business-like 
Northern clerk, dined in the charming French 
restaurants, where we saw eating made a fine art. 
The sea-food was then new to me, and I hovered 
over the crabs, lobsters and shrimps, but remem- 
ber how amused the General was by my quick re- 
treat from a huge green live turtle, whose locomo- 
tion was suspended by his being turned upon his 
back. He was unconsciously bearing his own 
epitaph fastened upon his shell : " I will be served 
up for dinner at 5 p. m. We of course spent hours, 

even matutinal hours, at the market, and the Gen^ 

63 



64 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

eral drank so much coffee that the old mammy 
who served him said many a " Mon Dieu !" in sur- 
prise at his capacity, and volubly described in 
French to her neighbors what marvels a Yankee 
man could do in coffee-sipping. For years after, 
when very good coffee was praised, or even Eliza's 
strongly commended, his ne plus tdtra was, 
" Almost equal to the French market." We here 
learned what artistic effects could be produced 
with prosaic carrots, beets, onions and turnips. 
The General looked with wonder upon the leis- 
urely Creole grandee who came to order his own 
dinner. After his epicurean selection, he showed 
the interest and skill that a Northern man might 
in the buying of a picture or a horse, when the 
servant bearing the basket was entrusted with 
what was to be enjoyed at night. We had never 
known men that took time to market, except as 
our hurried Northern fathers of families sometimes 
made sudden raids upon the butcher, on the way 
to business, and called off an order as they ran 
for a car. 

The wide-terraced Canal Street, with its throng 
of leisurely promenaders, was our daily resort. 
The stands of Parma violets on the street corners 
perfumed the whole block, and the war seemed 
not even to have cast a cloud over the first 
foreign pleasure-loving people we had seen. The 



DE TENTION AT NEW ORLEANS. 6 5 

General was so pleased with the picturesque cos- 
tumes of the servants, that Eliza was put into a 
turban at his entreaty. In vain we tried for a 
glimpse of the Creole beauties. The duenna that 
guarded them in their rare promenades, as they 
glided by, wearing gracefully the lace mantilla, 
bonnetless, and shaded by a French parasol, 
whisked the pretty things out of sight, quick as 
we were to discover and respectfully follow them 
The effects of General Butler's reign were still 
visible in the marvelous cleanliness of the city. 
We drove on the shell road, spent hours in the 
horse-cars, went to the theatres, and even pene- 
trated the rooms of the most exclusive milliners, 
for General Custer liked the shops as much as I 
did. Indeed, we had a grand play-day, and were 
not in the least troubled at our detention. 

General Scott was then in our hotel, about to set 
out for the North. He remembered Lieutenant 
Custer, who had reported to him in 1861, and was 
the bearer of despatches sent by him to the front; 
and he congratulated my husband on his career m 
terms that, coming from such a veteran, made his 
boy-heart leap for joy. General Scott was then 
very infirm, and, expressing a wish to see me, with 
old-time gallantry begged my husband to explain 
to me that he would be compelled to claim the 
privilege of sitting. But it was too much for his 



66 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

etiquettical instincts, and, weak as he was, he fee- 
bly drew his tall form to a half-standing position, 
leaning against the lounge as I entered. Pictures 
of General Scott, in my father's home, belonged 
to my earliest recollections. He was a colossal 
figure on a fiery steed, whose prancing fore feet 
never touched the earth. The Mexican War had 
hung a halo about him, and my childish explana- 
tion of the clouds of dust that the artist sought to 
represent was the smoke of battle, in which I sup- 
posed the hero lived perpetually. And now this 
decrepit, tottering man — I was almost sorry to 
have seen him at all, except for the praise that he 
bestowed upon my husband, which, coming from 
so old a soldier, I deeply appreciated. 

General Sheridan had assumed command of the 
Department of the Mississippi, and the Govern- 
ment had hired a beautiful mansion for headquar- 
ters, where he was at last living handsomely after 
all his rough campaigning. When we dined with 
him, we could but contrast the food prepared over 
a Virginia camp-fire, with the dainty French cook- 
ery of the old colored Mary, who served him after- 
ward so many years. General Custer was, of 
course, glad to be under his chief again, and after 
dinner, while I was given over to some of the 
military family to entertain, the two men, sitting 
on the wide gallery, talked of what, it was then 



THE END OF A CITY HOLIDAY. 67 

believed, would be a campaign across the border. 
I was left in complete ignorance, and did not even 
know that an army of 70,000 men was being or- 
ganized under General Sheridan's masterly hand. 
My husband read the Eastern papers to me, and 
took the liberty of reserving such articles as might 
prove incendiary in his family. If our incorrigible 
scamp spoke of the expected wealth he intended 
to acquire from the sacking of palaces and the 
spoils of churches, he was frowned upon, not only 
because the General tried to teach him that there 
were some subjects too sacred tp be touched by 
his irreverent tongue, but because he did not wish 
my anxieties to be aroused by the prospect of an- 
other campaign. As much of my story must be 
of the hardships my husband endured, I have here 
lingered a little over the holiday that our journey 
and the detention in New Orleans gave him. I 
hardly think any one can recall a complaint of his 
in those fourteen years of tent-life ; but he was 
taught, through deprivations, how to enjoy every 
moment of such days as that charming journey 
and city experience gave us. 

The steamer chartered to take troops up the Red 
River was finally ready, and we sailed the last 
week in June. There were horses and Government 
freight on board. The captain was well named 
Greathouse, as he greeted us with hospitality and 



68 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

put his little steamer at our disposal. Besides 
the fact that this contract for transportation would 
line his pockets well, he really seemed glad to 
have us. He was a Yankee, and gave us his na- 
tive State (Indiana) in copious and inexhaustible 
supplies, as his contribution to the talks on deck. 
Long residence in the South had not dimmed his 
patriotism ; and in the rapid transits from deck to 
pilot-house, of this tall Hoosier, I almost saw the 
straps fastening down the trousers of Brother 
Jonathan, as well as the coat-tails cut from the 
American flag, so entirely did he personate in his 
figure our emblematic Uncle Sam, It is customary 
for the Government to defray the expenses of offi- 
cers and soldiers when traveling under orders ; 
but so much red-tape is involved that they often 
pay their own way at the time, and the quarter- 
master reimburses them at the journey's end. 
The captain knew this, and thought he would 
give himself the pleasure of having us as his 
guests. Accordingly, he took the General one 
side, and imparted this very pleasing information. 
Even with the provident ones this would be a 
relief; while we had come on board almost wrecked 
in our finances by the theatre, the tempting flow- 
ers, the fascinating restaurants, and finally, a dis- 
astrous lingering one day in the beguiling shop of 
Madam Olympe, the reigning milliner. The Gen- 



HOSPITALITY OF CAPTAIN GREATIIOUSE. 69 

eral had boug-ht some folly for me, in spite of the 
heroic protest that I made about its inappropriate- 
ness for Texas, and it left us just enough to pay for 
our food on our journey, provided we ordered 
nothing extra, and had no delays. Captain Great- 
house little knew to what paupers he was extend- 
ing his hospitality. No one can comprehend how 
carelessly and enjoyably army people can walk 
about with empty pockets, knowing that it is but 
a matter of thirty days' waiting till Richard shall 
be himself again. My husband made haste to 
impart the news quietly to the staff, that the 
captain was going to invite them all to be his 
guests, and so relieve their anxiety about financial 
embarrassment. The scamp saw a chance for a 
joke, and when the captain again appeared he 
knew that he was going to receive the invitation, 
and anticipated it. In our presence he jingled 
the last twenty-six cents he had in the world 
against the knife in his almost empty pockets, 
assumed a Croesus-like air, and begged to know 
the cost of the journey, as he loftily said he made 
it a rule always to pay in advance. At this, the 
General, unable to smother his laughter, precipitat- 
ed himself out of the cabin-door, nearly over the 
narrow guard, to avoid having his merriment 
seen. When the captain said blandly that he was 
about to invite our party to partake of his hospital- 



JO 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



ity, our scamp bowed, and accepted the courtesy 
as if it were condescension on his part, and pro- 
ceeded to take possession, and almost command, 
of the steamer. 

It was a curious trip, that journey up the Red 
River. We saw the dull brownish-red water from 
the clay bed and banks mingling with the clearer 
current of the Mississippi long before we entered 
the mouth of the Red River. We had a delight- 
ful journey ; but I don't know why, except that 
youth, health and buoyant spirits rise superior to 
everything. The river was ugliness itself. The 
tree trunks, far up, were gray and slimy with the 
late freshet, the hanging moss adding a dismal 
feature to the scene. The waters still covered the 
low, muddy banks strewn with fallen trees and 
underbrush. The river was very narrow in places, 
and in our way there were precursors of the Red 
River raft above. At one time, before Govern- 
ment work was begun, the raft extended forty- 
five miles beyond Shreveport, and closed the 
channel to steamers. Sometimes the pilot wound 
us round just such obstructions — logs and drift- 
wood jammed in so firmly, and so immovable, 
they looked like solid ground, while rank vegeta- 
tion sprung up through the thick moss that cov- 
ered the decaying tree trunks. The river was 
very crooked, The whistle screeched when ap- 



RED RIVER OF THE SOUTH. 71 

preaching a turn ; but so sudden were some of 
these, that a steamer coming down, not slacken- 
ing speed, almost ran into us at one sharp bend. 
It shaved our sides and set our boat a-quivering, 
while the vituperations of the boat's crew, and the 
loud, angry voices of the captain and pilot, with 
a prompt return of such civilities from the other 
steamer, made us aware that emergencies brought 
forth a special and extensive set of invectives, re- 
served for careless navigation on the Red River 
of the South. We grew to have an increasing 
respect for the skill of the pilot, as he steered us 
around sharp turns, across low water filled with 
branching upturned tree trunks, and skillfully 
took a narrow path between the shore and a snag 
that menacingly ran its black point out of the 
water. A steamer in advance of us, carrying 
troops, had encountered a snag, while going at 
great speed, and the obstructing tree ran entirely 
through the boat, coming out at the pilot-house. 
The troops were unloaded and taken up after- 
ward by another steamer. Sometimes the roots 
of great forest trees, swept down by a freshet, 
become imbedded in the river, and the whole 
length of the trunk is under water, swaying up 
and down, but not visible below the turbid sur- 
face. The forest is dense at some points, and we 
could see but a short distance as we made our 
circuitous, dangerous way. 



72 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



The sand-bars, and the soft red clay of the river- 
banks, were a fitting home for the alligators that 
lay sunning themselves, or sluggishly crawled into 
the stream as the General popped away at them 
with his rifle from the steamer's guards. They 
were new game, and gave some fresh excitement 
to the long, idle days. He never gave up trying, 
in his determined way, for the vulnerable spot in 
their hide just behind the eye. I thought the 
sand-hill crane must have first acquired its tiresome 
habit of standing on one leg, from its disgust at 
letting down the reserve foot into such thick, 
noisome water. It seemed a pity that some of 
those shots from the steamer's deck had not 
ended its melancholy existence. Through all this 
mournful river-way the guitar twanged, and the 
dense forest resounded to war choruses or old 
college glees that we sent out in happy notes as 
we sat on deck. I believe Captain Greathouse 
bade us good-by with regret, as he seemed to 
enjoy the jolly party, and when we landed at 
Alexandria he gave us a hogshead of ice, the last 
we were to see for a year. 

A house abandoned by its owners, and used by 
General Banks for headquarters during the war, 
was selected for our temporary home. As we 
stepped upon the levee, a tall Southerner came 
toward me and extended his hand. At that time 



MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD REVIVED. 73 

the citizens were not wont to welcome the Yankee 
in that manner. He had to tell me who he was, 
as unfortunately I had forgotten, and I began 
to realize the truth of the saying, that " there are 
but two hundred and fifty people in the world," 
when I found an acquaintance in this isolated town. 
He proved to be the only Southerner I had ever 
known in my native town in Michigan, who came 
there when a lad to visit kinsfolk. In those days 
his long black hair, large dark eyes and languish- 
ing manner, added to the smooth, soft-flowing, 
flattering speeches, made sad havoc in our school- 
girl ranks. I suppose the youthful and probably 
susceptible hearts of our circle were all set flutter- 
ing, for the boy seemed to find pleasure in a chat 
with any one of us that fell to him in our walks 
to and from school. The captivating part of it all 
was the lines written on the pages of my arith- 
metic, otherwise so odious to me — " Come with 
me to my distant home, where, under soft South- 
ern skies, we'll breathe the odor of orange groves." 
None of us had answered to his " Come," possibly 
because of the infantile state of our existence, 
possibly because the invitation was too general. 
And here stood our youthful hero, worn prema- 
turely old and shabby after his four years of 
fighting for " the cause." The boasted " halls of 
his ancestors," the same to which we had been so 



74 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ardently invited, were a plain white cottage. No 
orange groves, but a few lime-trees sparsely scat- 
tered over the prescribed lawn. In the pleasant 
visit that we all had, there was discreet avoidance 
of the poetic license he had taken in early years, 
when describing his home under the southern sky. 
Alexandria had been partly burned during 
the war, and was built up mostly with one-story 
cottages. Indeed, it was always the popular 
mode of building there. We found everything 
a hundred years behind the times. The houses of 
our mechanics at home had more conveniences 
and modern improvements. I suppose the retinue 
of servants before the war rendered the inhabi- 
tants indifferent to what we think absolutely 
necessary for comfort. The house we used as 
headquarters had large, lofty rooms separated by a 
wide hall, while in addition there were two wings. 
A family occupied one-half of the house, caring 
for it in the absence of the owners. In the six 
weeks we were there, we never saw them, and 
naturally concluded they were not filled with joy 
at our presence. The house was delightfully airy ; 
but we took up the Southern custom of living on 
the gallery. The library was still intact, in spite 
of its having been headquarters for our army; and 
evidently the people had lived in what was 
considered luxury for the South in its former 



A WATER FAMINE. 



75 



days, yet everything" was primitive enough. 
This great house, filled as it once was with serv- 
ants, had its sole water-supply from two tanks 
or cisterns above-ground at the rear. The rich 
and the poor were alike dependent upon these 
receptacles, for water; and it was not a result 
of the war, for this was the only kind of res- 
ervoir provided, even in prosperous times. But 
one well was dug in Alexandria, as the water was 
brackish and impure. Each house, no matter how 
small, had cisterns, sometimes as high as the 
smaller cottages themselves. The water in those 
where we lived was very low, the tops were 
uncovered, and dust, leaves, bugs and flies were 
blown in, while the cats strolled around the upper 
rim during their midnight orchestral overtures. 
We found it necessary to husband the fast lower- 
ing water, as the rains were over for the summer. 
The servants were enjoined to draw out the 
home-made plug (there was not even a Yankee 
faucet) with the utmost care, while some one was 
to keep vigilant watch on a cow, very advanced 
in cunning, that used to come and hook at the 
plug till it was loosened and fell out. The sound 
of flowing water was our first warning of the 
precious wasting. No one could drink the river- 
water, and even in our ablutions we turned our 
eyes away as we poured the water from the pitcher 



76 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

into the bowl. Our rain-water Vv-as so full of 
gallinippers and poUywogs, that a glass stood by 
the plate untouched until the sediment and nat- 
ural history united at the bottom, while heaven 
knows what a microscope, had we possessed one, 
would have revealed ! 

Eliza was well primed with stories of alligators 
by the negroes and soldiers, who loved to frighten 
her. One measuring thirteen feet eight inches was 
killed on the river-bank, they said, as he was about 
to partake of his favorite supper, a negro sleep- 
ing on the sand. It was enough for Eliza when 
she heard of this preference for those of her 
color, and she duly stampeded. She was not well 
up in the habits of animals, and having seen the 
alligators crawling over the mud of the river banks, 
she believed they were so constituted that at night 
they could take long tramps over the country. 
She used to assure me that she nightly heard them 
crawling around the house. One night, when some 
fearful sounds issued from the cavernous depths 
of the old cistern, she ran to one of the old negroes 
of the place, her carefully braided wool rising from 
her head in consternation, and called out, "Jest 
listen ! jest listen!" The old mammy quieted her 
by, " Oh la, honey, don't you be skeart ; nothin's 
goin' to hurt you ; them's only bull-toads." This 
information, though it quieted Eliza's fears, did 



THE SOTTTITERiV CALLLVTPPER. 



77 



not make the cistern-water any more enjoyable 
to us. 

The houses along Red River were raised from 
the ground on piles, as the soil was too soft and 
porous for cellars. Before the fences were de- 
stroyed and the place fell into dilapidation, there 
might hav6 been a lattice around the base of the 
building, but now it was gone. Though this open 
space under the house gave vent for what air was 
stirring, it also offered free circulation to pigs, that 
ran grunting and squealing back and forth, and 
even the calves sought its grateful shelter from 
the sun and flies. And, oh, the mosquitoes! Others 
have exhausted adjectives in trying to describe 
them, and until I came to know those of the Mis- 
souri River at Fort Lincoln, Dakota, I joined in 
the general testimony, that the Red River of the 
South could not be outdone. The bayous about 
us, filled with decaying vegetable matter, and 
surrounded with marshy ground, and the frequent 
rapid fall of the river, leaving banks of mud, all 
bred mosquitoes, or gallinippers, as the darkies 
called them. Eliza took counsel as to the best 
mode of extermination, and brought old kettles 
with raw cotton into our room, from which pro- 
ceeded such smudges and such odors as would 
soon have wilted a Northern mosquito ; but it only 
resulted in making us feel like a piece of dried 



78 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



meat hanging in a smoke-house, while the undis- 
turbed insect winged its way about our heads, 
singing as it swirled and dipped and plunged its 
javelin into our defenseless flesh. There were days 
there, as at Fort Lincoln, when the wind, blowing 
in a certain direction, brought such myriads of 
them that I was obliged to beat a retreat under 
the netting that enveloped the high, broad bed, 
which is a specialty of the extreme South, and 
with my book, writing or sewing listened triumph- 
antly to the clamoring army beating on the out- 
side of the bars. The General made fun of me 
thus enthroned, when he returned from office 
work ; but I used to reply that he could afford fo 
remain unprotected, if the greedy creatures could 
draw their sustenance from his veins without leav- 
ing a sting. 

At the rear of our house were two rows of 
negro quarters, which Eliza soon penetrated, and 
afterward begged me to visit. Only the very old 
and worthless servants remained. The owners of 
the place on which we were living had three other 
sugar plantations in the valley, from one of which 
alone 2,300 hogsheads of sugar were shipped in 
one season, and at the approach of the army 500 
able-bodied negroes were sent into Texas. Eliza 
described the decamping of the owner of the plan- 
tation thus, " Oh, Miss Libbie, the war made a 



NEGRO REMINISCENCES. 



79 



mighty scatter." The poor creatures left were in 
desperate straits. One, a bed-ridden woman, 
having been a house-servant, was intelhgent for 
one of her race. After Ehza had taken me the 
rounds, I piloted the General, and he found that, 
though the very old woman did not know her exact 
age, she could tell him of events that she remem- 
bered when she was in New Orleans with her mis- 
tress, which enabled him to calculate her years to 
be almost a hundred. Three old people claimed 
to remember " Washington's war." I look back 
to our visit to her little cabin, where we sat beside 
her bed, as one of vivid interest. The old woman 
knew little of the war, and no one had told her 
of the proclamation until our arrival. We were 
both much moved when, after asking us ques- 
tions, she said to me, " And, Missey, is it really 
true that I is free ?" Then she raised her eyes to 
heaven, and blessed the Lord for letting her live 
to see the day. The General, who had to expostu- 
late with Eliza sometimes for her habit of feeding 
every one out of our supplies, whether needy or 
not, had no word to say now. Our kitchen could 
be full of grizzly, tottering old wrecks, and he only 
smiled on the generous dispenser of her master's 
substance. Indeed, he had them fed all the time 
we stayed there, and they dragged their tattered 
caps from their old heads, and blessed him as we 



8o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

left, for what he had done, and for the food that 
he provided for them after we were gone. 

It was at Alexandria that I first visited a negro 
prayer-meeting. As we sat on the gallery one 
evening, we heard the shouting and singing, and 
quietly crept round to the cabin where the exhort- 
ing and groaning were going on. My husband 
stood with uncovered head, reverencing their sin- 
cerity, and not a muscle of his face moved, 
though it was rather difficult to keep back a smile 
at the grotesqueness of the scene. The language, 
and the absorbed manner in which these old 
slaves held communion with their Lord, as if He 
were there in person, and told Him in simple but 
powerful language their thanks that the day of 
Jubilee had come, that their lives had been spared 
to see freedom come to His people, made us sure 
that a faith that brought their Saviour down in 
their midst was superior to that of the more civil- 
ized, who send petitions to a throne that they 
themselves surround with clouds of doctrine and 
doubt. Though they were so poor and helpless, 
and seemingly without anything to inspire grati- 
tude, evidently there were reasons in their own 
minds for heartfelt thanks, as there was no mistak- 
ing the genuineness of feeling when they sang : 

** Bless the Lord that I can rise and tell 
That Jesus has done all things well." 



COLORED PR A YER-MEE TING. 8 1 

Old as some of these people were, their reUgion 
took a very energetic form. They swayed back 
and forth as they sat about the dimly lighted 
cabin, clapped their hands spasmodically, and 
raised their eyes to heaven in moments of absorp- 
tion. There were those among the younger peo- 
ple who jumped up and down as the " power " 
possessed them, and the very feeblest uttered 
groans, and quavered out the chorus of the old 
tunes, in place of the more active demonstrations 
for which their rheumatic old limbs now unfitted 
them. When, afterward, my husband read to me 
newspaper accounts of negro camp-meetings or 
prayer-meetings graphically written, no descrip- 
tion seemed exaggerated to us ; and he used to 
say that nothing compared with that night when 
we first listened to those serious, earnest old cen- 
tenarians, whose feeble voices still quavered out a 
tune of gratitude, as, with bent forms and bowed 
heads, they stood leaning on their canes and 
crutches. 

As the heat became more overpowering, I be- 
gan to make excuses for the slip-shod manner of 
living of the Red River people. Active as was 
my temperament, climatic influences told, and I 
felt that I should have merited the denunciation 
of the antique woman in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
of " Heow shiftless ! " It was hard to move about 



82 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

in the heat of the day, but at evening we all went 
for a ride. It seemed to me a land of enchant- 
ment. We had never known such luxuriance of 
vegetation. The valley of the river extended 
several miles inland, the foliage was varied and 
abundant, and the sunsets had deeper, richer 
colors than any at the North. The General, get 
ting such constant pleasure out of nature, and not 
in the least minding to express it, was glad to 
hear even the prosaic one of our number, who 
rarely cared for color or scenery, go into raptures 
over the gorgeous orange and red of that Southern 
sky. We sometimes rode for miles along the 
country roads, between hedges of osage-orange 
on one side, and a double white rose on the other, 
growing fifteen feet high. The dew enhanced 
the fragrance, and a lavish profusion was dis- 
played by nature in that valley, which was a con- 
stant delight to us. Sometimes my husband and 
I remained out very late, loth to come back to 
the prosy, uninteresting town, with its streets 
flecked with bits of cotton, evidences of the traffic 
of the world, as the levee was now piled up with 
bales ready for shipment. Once the staif crossed 
with us to the other side of the river, and rode 
out through more beautiful country roads, to 
what was still called Sherman Institute. General 
Sherman had been at the head of this military 



CONFEDERATE ENGINEERING. 83 

school before the war, but it was subsequently 
converted into a hospital. It was in a lonely and 
deserted district, and the great empty stone 
building, with its turreted corners and modern 
architecture, seemed utterly incongruous in the 
wild pine forest that surrounded it. We returned 
to the river, and visited two forts on the bank 
opposite Alexandria. They were built by a Con- 
federate officer who used his Federal prisoners 
for workmen. The General took in at once the 
admirable situation selected, which commanded 
the river for many miles. He thoroughly appre- 
ciated, and endeavored carefully to explain to me, 
how cleverly the few materials at the disposal of 
the impoverished South had been utilized. The 
moat about the forts was the deepest our officers 
had ever seen. Closely as my husband studied 
the plan and formation, he said it would have 
added greatly to his appreciation, had he then 
known, what he afterward learned, that the Con- 
federate engineer who planned this admirable 
fortification was one of his classmates at West 
Point, of whom he was very fond. In 1864 an 
immense expedition of our forces was sent up the 
Red River, to capture Shreveport and open up the 
great cotton districts of Texas. It was unsuccess- 
ful, and the retreat was rendered impossible by 
low water, while much damage was done to our 



84 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

fleet by the very Confederate forts we were now 
visiting-. A dam was constructed near Alexan- 
dria, and the squadron was saved from capture 
or annihilation by this timely conception of a 
quick-witted Western man, Colonel Joseph Bailey, 
The dam was visible from the walls of the forts, 
where we climbed for a view. 

As we resumed our ride to the steamer, the 
General, who was usually an admirable path- 
finder, proposed a new and shorter road; and lik- 
ing variety too much to wish to travel the same 
country twice over, all gladly assented. Every- 
thing went very well for a time. We were ab- 
sorbed in talking, noting new scenes on the route, 
or, as was our custom when riding off from the 
public highway, we sang some chorus ; and thus 
laughing, singing, joking, we galloped over the 
ground thoughtlessly into the very midst of seri- 
ous danger. Apparently, nothing before us im- 
peded our way. We knew very little of the 
nature of the soil in that country, but had become 
somewhat accustomed to the bayous that either 
start from the river or appear suddenly inland, 
quite disconnected from any stream. On that 
day we dashed heedlessly to the bank of a wide 
bayou that poured its waters into the Red River. 
Instead of thinking twice, and taking the precau- 
tion to follow its course farther up into the coun- 




S ti 



•S '5 

5:5 
.is J3 



a a 
o o 
Q Q 



86 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

try, where the mud was dryer and the space to 
cross much narrower, we determined not to de- 
lay, and prepared to go over. The most venture- 
some dashed first on to this bit of dried slough, 
and though the crust swayed and sunk under 
the horse's flying feet, it still seemed caked hard 
enough to bear every weight. There were seams 
and fissures in portions of the bayou, through 
which the moist mud oozed ; but these were not 
sufficient warning to impetuous people. Another 
and another sprang over the undulating soiL 
Having reached the other side, they rode up and 
down the opposite bank, shouting to us where 
they thought it the safest to cross, and of course 
interlarded their directions with good-natured 
scoffing about hesitation, timidity, and so on. 
The General, never second in anything when he 
could help it, remained behind to fortify my sink- 
ing heart, and urge me to undertake the crossing 
with him. He reminded me how carefully Custis 
Lee had learned to follow and to trust to him, 
and he would doubtless plant his hoofs in the 
very tracks of his own horse. Another of our 
party tried to bolster up my courage, assuring me 
that if the heavy one among us was safely on the 
other bank, my light weight might be trusted. I 
dreaded making the party wait until we had 
gone farther up the bayou, and might have mus- 



ADVENTURE ON A BAYOU. 87 

tered up the required pluck had I not met with 
trepidation on the part of my horse. His fine, 
delicate ears told me, as plainly as if he could 
speak, that I was asking a great deal of him. We 
had encountered quicksands together in the bed 
of a Virginia stream, and both horse and rider 
were recalling the fearful sensation, when the 
animal's hind legs sank, leaving his body en- 
gulfed in the soil. With powerful struggles 
with his fore feet and muscular shoulders, we 
plunged to the right and left, and found at last 
firm soil on which to escape. With such a recol- 
lection still fresh, as memory is sure to retain ter- 
rors like that, it was hardly a wonder that we 
shrank from the next step. His trembling flanks 
shook as much as the unsteady hand that held his 
bridle. He quivered from head to foot, and held 
back. I urged, and patted his neck, while we 
both continued to shiver on the brink. The Gen- 
eral laughed at the two cowards we really were, 
but still gave us time to get our courage up to 
the mark. The officer remaining with us con- 
tinued to encourage me with assurances that there 
was " not an atom of danger," and finally, with a 
bound, shouting out, " Look how well I shall go 
over ! " sprang upon the vibrating crust. In an in- 
stant, with a crack like a pistol, the thin layer of 
solid mud broke, and down went the gay, hand- 



88 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

somely caparisoned fellow, engulfed to his waist 
in the foul black crust. There was at once a com- 
motion. With no ropes, it was hard to effect his 
release. His horse helped him most, struggling 
frantically for the bank, while the officers, having 
flung themselves off from their animals to rush to 
his rescue, brought poles and tree branches, which 
the imbedded man was not slow to grasp and 
drag himself from the perilous spot when only 
superhuman strength could deliver him, as the 
mud of a bayou sucks under its surface with 
great rapidity anything with which it comes in 
contact. As soon as the officer was dragged 
safely on to firm earth, a shout went up that rent 
the air with its merriment. Scarcely any one 
spoke while they labored to save the man's life, 
but once he was out of peril, the rescuers felt 
their hour had come. They called out to him, in 
tones of derision, the vaunting air with which he 
said just before his engulfment, " Look at me; 
see how I go over ! " He was indeed a sorry 
sight, plastered from head to foot with black mud. 
Frightened as I was — for the trembling had ad- 
vanced to shivering, and my chattering teeth and 
breathless voice were past my control — I still felt 
that little internal tremor of laughter that some- 
how pervades one who has a sense of the ludicrous 
in very dangerous surroundings. 



A LOUISIANA BAYOU. 



89 



I had certainly made a very narrow escape, for 
it would have been doubly hard to extricate me. 
The riding habits in those days were very long, 
and loaded so with lead to keep them down in 
high winds — and, I may add, in furious riding — 
that it was about all I could do to lift my skirt 
when I put it on. 

I held my horse with a snaffle, to get good, 
smooth going out of him, and my wrists became 
pretty strong ; but in that slough I would have 
found them of little avail, I fear. There remained 
no opposition to seeking a narrower part of the 
bayou, above where I had made such an escape, 
and there was still another good result of this 
severe lesson after that : when we came to such 
ominous looking soil, Custis Lee and his mistress 
were allowed all the shivering on the brink that 
their cowardice produced, while the party scattered 
to investigate the sort of foundation we were 
likely to find, before we attempted to plunge over 
a Louisiana quagmire. 

The bayous were a strange feature of that coun- 
try. Often without inlet or outlet, a strip of water 
appeared, black and sluggish, filled with logs, snags, 
masses of underbrush and leaves. The banks, cov- 
ered with weeds, noisome plants and rank tangled 
vegetation, seemed the dankest, darkest, most 
weird and mournful spots imaginable, a fit home for 



90 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



ghouls and bogies. There could be no more appro- 
priate place for a sensational novelist to locate a 
murder. After a time, I became accustomed to 
these frequently occurring water ways, but it took 
me a good while to enjoy going fishing on them. 
The men were glad to vary their days by dropping 
a line in that vile water, and I could not escape 
their urging to go, though I was excused from 
fishing. 

On one occasion we went down the river on a 
steamer, the sailors dragging the small boats over 
the strip of land between the river and the bayou, 
and all went fishing or hunting. This excursion 
was one that I am likely to remember forever. 
The officers, intent on their fishing, were rowed 
slowly through the thick water, while I was won- 
dering to myself if there could be, anywhere, such 
a wild jungle of vines and moss as hung from the 
trees and entangled itself in the mass of weeds 
and water-plants below. We followed little in- 
dentations of the stream, and the boat was rowed 
into small bays and near dark pools, where the 
fish are known to stay, and finally we floated. 
The very limbs of the trees and the gnarled 
trunks took on human shape, while the drooping 
moss swayed as if it might be the drapery of a 
lamia, evolved out of the noisome vapors and 
floating above us. These fears and imaginings, 



ALLIGA TORS. g I 

which would have been put to flight by the assur- 
ances of the General, had he not been so intent on 
his line, proved to be not wholly spectres of the 
imagination. A mass of logs in front of us seemed 
to move. They did move, and the alligator, that 
looked so like a tree-trunk, established his identity 
by separating himself from the floating timber and 
making off. It was my scream, for the officers 
themselves did not enjoy the proximity of the 
beast, that caused the instant use of the oars and 
a quick retreat. 

I went fishing after that, of course ; I couldn't 
get out of it ; indeed, I was supported through my 
tremors by a pleasure to which a woman cannot 
be indifferent ; that of being wanted on all sorts 
of excursions. But logs in the water never looked 
like logs after that ; to my distended vision they 
appeared to writhe with the slow contortions of 
loathsome animals. 

A soldier captured a baby-alligator one day, 
and the General, thinking to quiet my terror of 
them by letting me see the reptile " close to," as 
the children say, took me down to camp, where 
the delighted soldier told me how he had caught 
it, holding on to the tail, which is its weapon. 
The animal was all head and tail ; there seemed 
to be no intermediate anatomy. He flung the 
latter member at a hat in so vicious and violent a 



92 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



way, that I believed instantly the story, which I 
had first received with doubt, of his rapping- over 
a puppy and swallowing him before rescue could 
come. This pet was in a long tank of water the 
owner had built, and it gave the soldiers much 
amusement. 

The General was greatly interested in alligator- 
huntino^. It was said that the scales were as thick 
as a china plate, except on the head, and he began 
to believe so when he found his balls glancing off 
the impenetrable hide as if from the side of an 
iron-clad. I suppose it was very exciting, after 
the officers had yelped and barked like a dog, to 
to see the great monster decoyed from some dark 
retreat by the sound of his favorite tid-bit The 
wary game came slowly down the bayou, under 
fire of the kneeling huntsmen concealed in the 
underbrush, and was soon despatched. For my- 
self, I should have preferred, had I been consulted, 
a post of observation in the top of some tree, in- 
stead of the boat in which I was being rowed. 



CHAPTER III. 

MUTINY TRIAL BY COURT-MARTIAL A MILITARY EXE- 
CUTION MARCHING THROUGH TEXAS FORAGING 

FOR A BED JOY OVER A PILLOW EVERY MAN 

HAS HIS PRICE FOUR MONTHS IN A WAGON 

LIFE WITHOUT A LOOKING-GLASS. 

'^HERE w^as a great deal to do in those v^eeks 
of our detention at Alexandria, during the 
working hours of the day, in organizing the 
division of cavalry for the march. Troops that 
had been serving in the West during the w^ar 
were brought together at that point from all 
directions, and an effort was made to form them 
into a disciplined body. This herculean task 
gave my husband great perplexity. He wrote 
to my father that he did not entirely blame the 
men for the restlessness and insubordination they 
exhibited, as their comrades, who had enlisted only 
for the war, had gone home, and, of course, wrote 
back letters to their friends of the pleasures of 
reunion with their families and kindred, and the 
welcome given them by their townspeople. The 
troops with us had not served out the time of 



94 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



their enlistment, and the Government, according 
to the strict letter of the law, had a right to the 
unexpired time for which the men were pledged. 
Some of the regiments had not known the smell 
of gunpowder during the entire vv^ar, having been 
stationed in and near Southern cities, and that 
duty is generally demoralizing. In the reorgan- 
izing of this material, every order issued was met 
with growls and grumbling. It seemed that it 
had been the custom with some of their officers to 
issue an order, and then go out and make a speech, 
explaining the whys and wherefores. One of the 
colonels came to the General one day at his own 
quarters, thinking it a better place than the office 
to make his request. He was a spectacle, and 
though General Custer was never in after years 
incautious enough to mention his name, he could 
not, with his keen sense of the ludicrous, resist a 
laughing description of the interview. The man 
was large and bulky in build. Over the breast of 
a long, loose, untidy linen duster he had spread 
the crimson sash, as he was officer of the day. A 
military sword-belt gathered in the voluminous 
folds of the coat, and from his side hung a parade 
sword. A slouch hat was crowded down on a 
shock of bushy hair. One trouser-leg was tucked 
into his boot, as if to represent one foot in the 
cavalry; the other, true to the infantry, was down 



MILITAR Y SELF-GO VERNMENT. 



95 



in its proper place. He began his interview by 
praising his regiment, gave an account of the suc- 
cess with which he was drilling his men, and, 
leaning confidentially on the General's knee, told 

him he " would make them so near like reg- 

glers you couldn't tell 'em apart." Two officers 
of the regular army were then in command of 
the two brigades, to one of which this man's 
regiment was assigned. But the object of the 
visit was not solely to praise his regiment ; he 
went on to say that an order had been issued 
which the men did not like, and he had come up to 
expostulate. He did not ask to have the order 
rescinded, but told the General he would like to 
have him come down and give the reasons to the 
troops. He added that this was what they ex- 
pected, and when he issued any command he 
went out and got upon a barrel and explained it 
to the boys. My husband listened patiently, but 
declined, as that manner of issuing orders was 
hardly in accordance with his ideas of discipline. 
The soldiers did not confine their maledictions 
to the regular officers in command ; they openly 
refused to obey their own officers. One of the 
colonels (I am glad I have forgotten his name) 
made ^ social call at our house. He was in great 
perturbation of mind, and evidently terrified, as 
in the preceding night his dissatisfied soldiers had 



96 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



riddled his tent with bullets, and, but for his " lying" 
low " he would have been perforated like a sieve. 
The men supposed they had ended his military 
career ; but at daylight he crept out. The sol- 
diers were punished ; but there seemed to be 
little to expect in the way of obedience if, after 
four years, they ignored their superiors and took 
affairs into their own hands. Threats began to 
make their way to our house. The staff had their 
tents on the lawn in front of us, and even they 
tried to persuade the General to lock the doors 
and bolt the windows, which were left wide open 
day and night. Failing to gain his consent to 
take any precautions, they asked me to use my 
influence ; but in such affairs I had little success 
in persuasion. The servants, and even the order- 
lies, came to me and solemnly warned me of the 
threats and the danger that menaced the General. 
Thoroughly frightened in his behalf, they prefaced 
their warnings with the old-fashioned sensational 
language: "This night, at 12 o'clock," etc. The 
fixing of the hour for the arrival of the assas- 
sin completely unnerved me, as I had not then 
escaped from the influence that the melodramatic 
has upon youth. I ran to the General the mo- 
ment he came from his office duties, to tell him, 
with tears and agitation, of his peril. As usual, 
he soothed my fears, but, on this occasion, only 



THREATS AND A PiSTOL. q7 

temporarily. Still, seeing what I suffered from 
anxiety, he made one concession, and consented, 
after much imploring, to put a pistol under his 
pillow. A complete battery of artillery round our 
house could not have secured to me more peace 
of mind than that pistol ; for I knew the accuracy 
of his aim, and I had known too much of his cool, 
resolute action, in moments of peril, not to be sure 
that the small weapon would do its work. Peace 
was restored to the head of our house ; he had a 
respite from the whimpering and begging. I even 
grew so courageous as to be able to repeat to 
Eliza, when she came next morning to put the 
room in order, what the General had said to me, 
that " barking dogs do not bite." The mattress 
was proudly lifted, and the pistol, of which I stood 
in awe, in spite of my faith in its efficacy, was ex- 
hibited to her in triumph. I made wide detours 
around that side of the bed the rest of the time we 
remained at Alexandria, afraid of the very weapon 
to which I was indebted for tranquil hours. The 
cats, pigs and calves might charge at will under 
the house. If I mistook them for the approaching 
adversary I remembered the revolver and was 
calmed. 

Long afterward, during our winter in Texas, my 
husband began one day to appear mysterious, and 
assume the suppressed air that invariably prefaced 



98 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



a season of tormenting, when a siege of questions 
only brought out deeper and obscurer answers 
to me. Pouting, tossing of the head, and reiter- 
ated announcements that I didn't care a rap, I 
didn't want to know, etc., were met by chuckles 
of triumph and wild juba patting and dancing 
around the victim ; unrestrained by my saying that 
such was the custom of the savage while torturing 
his prisoner. Still, he persisted that he had such 
a good joke on me. And it certainly was : there 
had not been a round of ammunition in the house 
that we occupied at Alexandria, neither had that 
old pistol been loaded during the entire summer. 

The soldiers became bolder in their rebellion, 
insubordination reached a point where it was al- 
most uncontrollable. Reports were sent to Gen- 
eral Sheridan, in command of the Department, 
and he replied to my husband, " Use such sum- 
mary measures as you deem proper to overcome 
the mutinous disposition of the individuals in 
your command." A Western officer, a stranger 
to us up to that time, published an account of one 
of the regiments, which explains what was not 
clear to us then, as we had come directly from 
the Army of the Potomac: 

" One regiment had suffered somewhat from 
indifferent field-officers, but more from the bad 
fortune that overtook so many Western regiments 



JNSUBORDINA TION. 



99 



in the shape of garrison duty in small squads or 
squadrons, so scattered as to make each a sort of 
independent command, which in the end resulted 
in a loss of discipline, and the ruin of those bonds 
of sympathy that bound most regiments together. 
To lead such a regiment into a hotly contested 
fight would be a blessing, and would effectually 
set at rest all such trouble; but their fighting had 
been altogether of the guerrilla kind, and there 
was no regimental pride of character, simply be- 
cause there had been no regimental deed of valor. 
Tired out with the long service, weary with an 
uncomfortable journey by river from Memphis, 
sweltering under a Gulf-coast sun, under orders 
to go farther and farther from home when the 
war was over, the one desire was, to be mustered 
out and released from a service that became irk- 
some and baleful when a prospect of crushing the 
enemy no longer existed. All these, added to 
the dissatisfaction among the officers, rendered 
the situation truly deplorable. The command 
had hardly pitched their tents at Alexandria be- 
fore the spirit of reckless disregard of authority 
began to manifest itself. The men, singly or in 
squads, began to go on extemporaneous raids 
through the adjoining country, robbing and 
plundering indiscriminately in every direction. 
They seemed to have no idea that a conquered 



lOO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and subdued people could possibly have any 
rights that the conquerors were bound to respect. 
But General Custer was under orders to treat the 
people kindly and considerately, and he obeyed 
orders with the same punctiliousness with which 
he exacted obedience from his command." 

The anger and hatred of these troops toward 
one especial officer culminated in their peremp- 
tory demand that he should resign. They drew 
up a paper, and signed their names. He had not 
a friend, and sought the commanding officer for 
protection. This was too pronounced a case of 
mutiny to be treated with any but the promptest, 
severest measures, and all who had put their 
names to the document were placed under arrest. 
The paper was in reality but a small part of the 
incessant persecution, which included threats of 
all kinds against the life of the hated man ; but 
it was written proof that ' * tements regarding 
his danger were true. 

All but one of those that were implicated apol- 
ogized, and were restored to duty. A sergeant 
held out, and refused to acknowledge himself in 
the wrong. A court-martial tried him, and he 
was sentenced to death. Those who had been 
associated in the rebellion against their officer 
were thoroughly frightened, and seriously grieved 
at the fate to which their comrade had been con- 



JUSTICE AND MERCY. lOI 

signed by their uncontrollable rage, and began to 
speak among themselves of the wife and children 
at home. The wife was unconscious that the 
heartbreaking revelations were on their way, that 
the saddest of woman's sorrows, widowhood, was 
hers to endure, and that her children must bear a 
tainted name. It came to be whispered about that 
the doomed man wore on his heart a curl of 
baby's hair, that had been cut from his child's head 
when he went out to serve his imperiled country. 
Finally, the wretched, conscience-stricken soldiers 
sued for pardon for their condemned companion, 
and the very man against whom the enmity had 
been cherished, and who owed his life to an 
accident, busied himself in collecting the name of 
every man in the command, begging clemency 
for the imperiled sergeant. Six days passed, and 
there was increased misery among the men, who 
felt themselves responsible for their comrade's 
life. The prayer for pardon, with its long roll of 
names, had been met by the General with the 
reply that the matter would be considered. 

The men now prepared for vengeance. They 
lay around the camp-fires, or grouped themselves 
in tents, saying that the commanding officer 
would not dare to execute the sentence of the 
court-martial, while messages of this kind 
reached my husband in cowardly, roundabout 



102 TENTTNC, ON' THE PLAINS. 

ways, and threats and menaces seemed to fill 
the air. The preparation for the serg-eant's exe- 
cution was ordered, and directions given that a 
deserter, tried by court-martial and condemned, 
should be shot on the same day. This man, a 
vagabond and criminal before his enlistment, had 
deserted three or four times, and his sentence 
drew little pity from his comrades. At last 
dawned in the lovely valley that dreadful day, 
which I recall now with a shudder. It was im- 
possible to keep me from knowing that an execu- 
tion was to occur. There was no place to send 
me. The subterfuges by which my husband had 
kept me frorfi knowing the tragic or the sorrowful 
in our military life heretofore, were of no avail 
now. Fortunately, I knew nothing of the peti- 
tion for pardon ; nothing, thank God ! of the wife 
at her home, or of the curl of baby's hair that 
was rising and falling over the throbbing, ago- 
nized heart of the condemned father. And how 
the capacity we may have for embracing the sor- 
rows of the whole world disappears, when our 
selfish terrors concentrate on the safety of our 
own loved ones ! 

The sergeant's life was precious as a life ; but 
the threats, the ominous and quiet watching, the 
malignant, revengeful faces of the troops about 
us, told me plainly that another day might darken 



COOLNESS UNDER DANGER. 103 

my life forever, and I was consumed by my own 
torturing suspense. Rumors of the proposed 
murder of my husband reached me through the 
kitchen, the orderUes about our quarters, and at 
last through the staff. They had fallen into the 
fashion of my husband, and spared me anything 
that was agitating or alarming ; but this was a 
time, they felt, when all possible measures should 
be taken to protect the General, and they im- 
plored me to induce him to take precautions for 
his safety. My pleading was of no avail. He 
had ordered the staff to follow him unarmed to 
the execution. They begged him to wear his 
side-arms, or at least permit them the privilege, 
in order that they might defend him ; but he 
resolutely refused. How trivial seem all attempts 
to describe the agonies of mind that jfilled that 
black hour when the General and his staff rode 
from our lawn toward the dreaded field ! 

Eliza, ever thoughtful of me, hovered round 
the bed, where I had buried my head in the pil- 
lows, to deaden the sound of the expected volley. 
With terms of endearment, and soothino^, she 
sought to assure me that nothing would happen 
to the General. " Nothin' ever does, you know. 
Miss Libbie," she said, her voice full of the 
mother in us all when we seek to console. And 
yet that woman knew all the plans for the Gen- 



I04 TENTIh'G ON- THE PLAINS. 

eral's death, all the venom in the hearts of those 
who surrounded us, and she felt no hope for 
his safety. 

Pomp and circumstance are not alone for 
" glorious war," but in army life must also be ob- 
served in times of peace. There are good 
reasons for it, I suppose. The more form and 
solemnity, the deeper the impression ; and as this 
day was to be a crucial one, in proving to the in- 
subordinate that order must eventually prevail, 
nothing was hurried, none of the usual customs 
were omitted. Five thousand soldiers formed a hol- 
low square in a field near the town. The staff, ac- 
customed to take a position and remain with their 
General near the opening left by the division, fol- 
lowed with wonder and alarm as he rode slowly 
around the entire square, so near the troops that 
a hand might have been stretched out to deal a 
fatal blow. The wagon, drawn by four horses, 
bearing the criminals sitting on their coffins, was 
driven at a slow pace around the square, escorted 
by the guard and the firing-party, with reversed 
arms. The coffins were placed in the centre of 
the square, and the men seated upon them at the 
foot of their open graves. Eight men, with livid 
countenances and vehemently beating hearts, took 
their places in front of their comrades, and looked 
upon the blanched, despairing faces of those 



A REPRIEVE, 105 

whom they were ordered to kill. The provost- 
marshal carried their carbines off to a distance, 
loaded seven, and placed a blank cartridge in the 
eighth, thus giving the merciful boon of per- 
manent uncertainty as to whose was the fatal shot. 
The eyes of the poor victims were then bandaged, 
while thousands of men held their breath as the 
tragedy went on. The still, Southern air of that 
garden on earth was unmoved by any sound, save 
the unceasing notes of the mocking-birds that 
sang night and day in the hedges. Preparations 
had been so accurately made that there was but 
one word to be spoken, after the reading of the 
warrant for execution, and that the last that those 
most miserable and hopeless of God's creatures 
should hear on earth. 

There was still one more duty for the provost- 
marshal before the fatal word, " Fire !" was sound- 
ed. But one person understood his movements as 
he stealthily drew near the sergeant, took his arm, 
and led him aside. In an instant his voice rang out 
the fatal word, and the deserter fell back dead, in 
blessed ignorance that he went into eternity alone ; 
while the sergeant swooned in the arms of the 
provost-marshal. When he was revived, it was 
explained to him that the General believed him to 
have been the victim of undue influence, and had 
long since determined upon the pardon ; but some 



I06 TENTINC ON THE PLAINS. 

punishment he thought necessary, and he was also 
determined that the soldiers should not feel that 
he had been intimidated from performing his duty 
because his own life was in peril. It was ascer- 
tained afterward that the sergeant's regiment had 
gone out that day with loaded carbines and forty 
rounds besides ; but the knowledge of this would 
have altered no plan, nor would it have induced 
the commanding officer to reveal to any but his 
provost-marshal the final decision. 

Let us hope that in these blessed days of peace 
some other tiny curls are nestling in a grand- 
father's neck, instead of lying over his heart as 
did the son's in those days, when memories and 
mementoes were all we had of those we loved. 

General Custer not only had his own Division 
to organize and discipline, but was constantly 
occupied in trying to establish some sort of har- 
mony between the Confederate soldiers, the citi- 
zens, and his command. The blood of everyone 
was at boiling-point then. The soldiers had not 
the grief of returning to homes desolated by war, 
because Louisiana escaped much and Texas all of 
the devastation of campaigns ; but they came 
home obliged to begin the world again. The 
negroes of the Red-River country were not an 
easy class to manage in days of slavery. We 
heard that all desperate characters in the border 



PERPLEXITIES 01^ DISCIPLINE. 1 07 

States had been sold into Louisiana, because of 
its comparative isolation, and that the most ungov- 
ernable cases were congregated in the valley of 
the Red River. However that may have been, it 
certainly was difficult to make them conform to 
the new state of affairs. The master, unaccus- 
tomed to freedom, still treated the negro as a 
slave. The colored man, inflated with freedom 
and reveling in idleness, would not accept com- 
mon directions in labor. How even the South 
tolerates a name that it once hated, in the pros- 
perity of the new regime, and in the prospect of 
their splendid future ! How fresh the enthusiasm 
in the present day, at any mention of the liberator 
of the slaves ! 

But when we consider through what bungling 
errors we groped blindly in those early days of 
emancipation, we might well wish that Abraham 
Lincoln could have been spared to bring his jus- 
tice and gentle humanity to bear upon the ad- 
justing of that great transition from slavery to 
freedom. 

At the least intimation of a " show " or a funeral 
— which is a festivity to them, on account of the 
crowds that congregate — off went the entire body 
of men, even if the crops were in danger of spoil- 
ing for want of harvesting. It was a time in our 
history that one does not like to look back upon. 



Io8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The excitement into which the land was thrown, 
not only by war, but by the puzzhng question of 
how to reconcile master to servant and servant to 
master — for the colored people were an element 
most difficult to manage, owing to their ignorance 
and the sudden change of relations to their former 
owners — all this created new and perplexing 
problems, which were the order of each day. 

The Confederate soldiers had to get their blood 
down from fever heat. Some took advantage of 
the fact that the war was over and the Govern- 
ment was ordering its soldiers into the State, not 
as invaders but as pacifiers, to drag their sabres 
through the street and talk loudly on the corners 
in belligerent language, without fear of the im- 
prisonment that in war-times had so quickly 
followed. 

The General was obliged to issue simultaneous 
orders to his own men, demanding their observ- 
ance of every right of the citizen, and to the re- 
turned Confederate soldiers, assuring them that 
the Government had not sent troops into their 
country as belligerents, but insisting upon certain 
obligations, as citizens, from them. 

In an order to the Division, he said : " Numer- 
ous complaints having reached these headquarters, 
of depredations having been committed by per- 
sons belonging to this command, all officers and 



AN ORDER TO THE DIVISION. 109 

soldiers are hereby urged to use every exertion to 
prevent the committal of acts of lawlessness, 
which, if permitted to pass unpunished, will bring 
discredit upon the command. Now that the war 
is virtually ended, the rebellion put down, and 
peace about to be restored to our entire country, 
let not the lustre of the past four years be dim- 
med by a single act of misconduct toward the 
persons or property of those with whom we 
may be brought in contact. In the future, 
and particularly on the march, the utmost 
care will be exercised to save the inhabitants 
of the country in which we may be located 
from any molestation whatever. Every violation 
of the order regarding foraging will be punished. 
The Commanding-General is well aware that the 
number of those upon whom the enforcement of 
this order will be necessary will be small, and he 
trusts that in no case will it be necessary. All 
officers and soldiers of this command are ear- 
nestly reminded to treat the inhabitants of this De- 
partment with conciliation and kindness, and par- 
ticularly is this injunction necessary when we are 
brought in contact with those who lately were in 
arms against us. You can well afford to be gen- 
erous and magnanimous." 

In another order, addressed to the Confederate 
soldiers, he said : " It is expected, and it will be 



I lo TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

required, that those who were once our enemies, 
but are now to be treated as friends, will in return 
refrain from idle boasts, which can only result in 
harm to themselves. If there still be any who, 
blind to the events of the past four years, con- 
tinue to indulge in seditious harangues, all such 
disturbers of the peace will be arrested, and 
brought to these headquarters." 

Between the troublesome negroes, the unsub- 
dued Confederates, and the lawless among our 
own soldiers, life was by no means an easy prob- 
lem to solve. A boy of twenty-five was then ex- 
pected to act the subtle part of statesman and 
patriot, and conciliate and soothe the citizen ; the 
part of stern and unrelenting soldier, punish- 
ing evidences of unsuppressed rebellion on the 
part of the conquered ; and at the same time the 
vigilant commanding officer, exacting obedience 
from his own disaffected soldiery. 

As for the positions he filled toward the negro, 
they were varied — counseling these duties to 
those who employed them, warning them from 
idleness, and urging them to work, feeding and 
clothing the impoverished and the old. It seems 
to me it was a position combining in one man 
doctor, lawyer, task-master, father and provider. 
The town and camp swarmed with the colored 
people, lazily lying around waiting for the Gov- 



AN ORDER TO THE NEGROES. I I I 

ernment to take care of them, and it was neces- 
sary to issue a long order to the negroes, from 
which I make an extract : 

" Since the recent advent of the United States 
forces into this vicinity, many of the freedmen of 
the surrounding country seem to have imbibed 
the idea that they will no longer be required to 
labor for their own support and the support of 
those depending upon them. Such ideas cannot 
be tolerated, being alike injurious to the interests 
and welfare of the freedmen and their employers. 
Freedmen must not look upon military posts as 
places of idle resort, from which they can draw 
their means of support. Their proper course is 
to obtain employment, if possible, upon the same 
plantations where they were previously employed. 
General Order No. 23, Headquarters Department 
of the Gulf, March 11, 1865, prescribes the rules 
of contract in the case of these persons. The com- 
ing crops, already maturing, require cultivation, 
and will furnish employment for all who are dis- 
posed to be industrious. Hereafter, no freedman 
will be permitted to remain in the vicinity of the 
camps who are not engaged in some proper em- 
ployment." 

Standing alone in the midst of all this confu- 
sion, and endeavoring to administer justice on all 
sides, General Custer had by no means an envia- 



I I 2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ble task. I do not wonder now that he kept his 
perplexities as much as possible from me. He 
wished to spare me anxiety, and the romp or the 
gallop over the fragrant field, which he asked for 
as soon as office-hours were over, was probably 
much more enjoyable with a woman with uncor- 
rugated brow. Still, I see now the puzzled shake 
of the head as he said, " A man may do every- 
thing to keep a woman from knowledge of offi- 
cial matters, and then she gets so confounded 
keen in putting little trifles together, the first 
thing you know she is reading a man's very 
thoughts." Yet it does not strike me as remark- 
able keenness on the part of a woman if, after the 
experience she gains in following the bugle a 
time, and with her wits sharpened by aff"ection, 
she decides that a move is about to take place. 
The General used to turn quickly, almost suspici- 
ously, to me and say, as if I had been told by the 
staff, " How did you find out we were ordered to 
move ? " — when he had been sending for the 
quartermaster and the commissary, and looking 
at his maps, for ever so long before ! It was not 
much of a mystery to solve when the quarter- 
master meant transportation, the commissary 
food, and the maps a new route. 

After determined efforts to establish discipline, 
order began to be evolved out of the chaos, and 



AN A TTACK ON THE AGED I 1 3 

the men resigned themselves to their hard fate. 
Much as I feared them, and greatly as I had resent- 
ed their attempt to lay all their present detention 
and compulsory service to my husband, I could 
not but agree with him when he argued for them, 
that it was pretty hard not to be allowed to go 
home, when the other soldiers had returned to 
receive the rewards of the victorious. They 
wrote home abusive newspaper articles, which 
were promptly mailed to the General by unknown 
hands, but of which he took no notice. I recol- 
lect only once, after that, knowing of an abso- 
lutely disagreable encounter. During the follow- 
ing winter in Texas, my husband came quickly 
into our room one morning, took my riding-whip, 
and returned across the hall to his office. In a 
short time he as quickly returned, and restored it 
to its place, and I extracted from him an explana- 
tion. Among the newspaper articles sent him 
from the North, there was an attack on his dear, 
quiet, unoffending father and mother. He sent 
for the officer who was credited with the author- 
ship, and, after his denial of the article, told him 
what he had intended to do had he been guilty 
of such an assault; that he was prepared for any at- 
tack on himself, but nothing would make him sub- 
mit to seeing his gray-haired parents assailed. Then 
he bade him good-morning, and bowed him out. 



I 1 4 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The effect of the weeks of discipUne on the 
Division was visible on our march into Texas. The 
General had believed that the men would eventual- 
ly conform to the restrictions, and he was heartily 
relieved and glad to find that they did. The Texans 
were amazed at the absence of the lawlessness 
they had expected from our army, and thankful 
to find that the Yankee column was neither de- 
vastating nor even injuring their hitherto unmo- 
lested State, for the war on land had not reached 
Texas. The troops were not permitted to live on 
the country, as is the usage of war, and only one 
instance occurred during the entire march, of a 
soldier's simply helping himself to a farmer's 
grain. Every pound of food and forage was 
bought by the quartermaster. It was hard to 
realize that the column marching in a methodical 
and orderly manner was, so short a time before, 
a lawless and mutinous command. 

They hated us, I suppose. That is the penalty 
the commanding officer generally pays for what 
still seems to me the questionable privilege of 
rank and power. Whatever they thought, it did 
not deter us from commending, among ourselves, 
the good material in those Western men, which so 
soon made them orderly and obedient soldiers. 

But I have anticipated somewhat and must go 
back and say good-by to that rich, flower-scented 



PRIVILEGES OUTNLMBER HARDSHIPS. 



115 



valley. It had been a strange experience to me. 
I had no woman but Eliza to whom I could speak. 
The country and all its customs seemed like an- 
other world, into which I had unexpectedly 
entered. I had spent many hours of anxiety about 
my husband's safety. But the anxiety, heat, mos- 
quitoes, poor water, alligators, mutiny, all com- 
bined, failed to extract a complaint. There was 
not an atom of heroism in this ; it was undeniably 
the shrewd cunning of which women are accused, 
for I lived in hourly dread of being sent to Texas 
by the other route, via New Orleans and the Gulf 
of Mexico. The General had been advised by 
letters from home to send me that way, on the 
ground that I could not endure a march at that 
season. Officers took on a tone of superiority, and 
said that they would not think of taking theh' 
wives into such a wilderness. My fate hung in 
the balance, and under such circumstances it was 
not strange that the inconveniences of our stay 
on Red River were not even so much as ac- 
knowledged. It is true that I was not then a 
veteran campaigner, and the very newness of the 
hardships would, doubtless, have called forth a 
few sighs, had not the fear of another separation 
haunted me. It is astonishing how much grum- 
bling is suppressed by the fear of something worse 
awaiting you. In the decision which direction I 



1 1 6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

was to take, I won ; my husband's scruples were 
overcome by my unanswerable arguments and his 
own inclination. 

I prepared to leave Alexandria with regret, for 
the pleasures of our stay had outnumbered the 
drawbacks. It was our first knowledge that the 
earth could be so lovely and so lavishly laden 
with what began to be tropical luxuriance. I do 
not recall the names of all the birds, but the 
throats of all of them seemed to be filled with song. 
In a semicircle on the lawn in front of our house,, 
grew a thick hedge of crape myrtle, covered with 
fragrant blossoms. Here the mocking-birds fear- 
lessly built their nests, and the stillest hour of the 
night was made melodious with the song that twi- 
light had been too short to complete. Really, the 
summer day there was too brief to tell all that 
these birds had to say to their mates. 

To the General, who would have had an aviary 
had it been just the thing for a mounted regiment^ 
lall this song, day and night, was enchanting. In 
after years he never forgot those midnight sere- 
nades, and in 1873 he took a mocking-bird into 
the bleak climate of Dakota. Eliza mildly growled 
at "sich nonsense" as "toting round a bird, when 
'twas all folks like us could do to get transporta- 
tion for a cooking-kit." Nevertheless, she took 
excellent care of the feathered tribe that we owned. 



A LUXURIANT VALLEY. I i 7 

Among the fruits we first ate in Louisiana were 
fresh figs, which we picked from the tree. It was 
something to write home about, but at the same 
time we wished that instead we might have a 
Northern apple. 

The time came to bid farewell to birds, fruits, 
jasmine and rose, and prepare for a plunge into the 
wilderness — much talked of with foreboding pro- 
phecies by the citizens, but a hundred times worse 
in reality than the gloomiest predictions. 

It was known that the country through which 
we were to travel, having been inaccessible to 
merchants, and being even then infested with 
guerillas, had large accumulations of cotton 
stored at intervals along the route that was 
marked out for our journey. Speculators arrived 
from New Orleans, and solicited the privilege of 
following with wagons that they intended to load 
with cotton. They asked no favors, desiring only 
the protection that the cavalry column would 
afford, and expected to make their way in our 
wake until the seaboard was reached and they 
could ship their purchases by the Gulf of Mexico. 
But their request was refused, as the General 
hardly thought it a fitting use to which to put the 
army. Then they assailed the quartermaster, 
offering twenty-five thousand dollars to the Gen- 
eral and him, as a bribe. But both men laughed 



I I 8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to scorn that manner of gretting- rich, and returned 
to their homes the year after as poor as when they 
had left there five years before. As I think of the 
instances that came under my knowledge, when 
quartermasters could have made fortunes, it is a 
marvel to me that they so often resisted all man- 
ner of temptation. The old tale, perhaps dating 
back to the War of 1812, still applies, as it is a 
constantly recurring experience. There was once 
a wag in the quartermaster's department, and 
even when weighted down with the grave respon- 
sibility of a portion of the Government treasury, 
he still retained a glimmer of fun. Contractors 
lay in wait for him with bribes, which his spirit of 
humor allowed to increase, even though the offers 
were insults to his honor. Finally, reaching a 
very large sum, in sheer desperation he wrote to 
the War Department : " In the name of all the 
gods, relieve me from this Department ; they've 
almost got up to my price." Civilians hardly 
realize that, even in times of peace like this, when 
the disbursements will not compare with the 
money spent in years of war, between eight and 
nine millions of dollars^are yearly paid out by the 
quartermaster's department alone. Since the war 
the embezzlements have been hardly worthy of so 
serious a name, amounting to but a few hundred 
dollars, all told. 



A SOLDIER'S COURTESY. 



119 



The General had an ambulance fitted up as a 
traveling-wagon for me ; the seats so arranged 
that the leather backs could be unstrapped at the 
sides and laid down so as to form a bed, if I 
wished to rest during the march. There was a 
pocket for my needlework and book, and a box 
for luncheon, while my traveling-bag and shawl 
were strapped at the side, convenient, but out of 
the way. It was quite a complete little house of 
itself. One of the soldiers, who was interested in 
the preparations for my comfort, covered a can- 
teen with leather, adding of his own accord, in 
fine stitchery in the yellow silk used by the sad- 
dlers, " Lady Custer." Each day of our journey 
this lofty distinction became more and more in- 
congruous and amusinor, as I realized the increas- 
ing ugliness, for which the rough life was, in a 
measure, responsible. By the time we reached 
the end of our march there was a yawning gulf 
between the soldier's title and the appearance of 
the owner of the canteen. The pfuide that had 
been employed was well up in all the devices for 
securing what little measure of comfort was to 
be found in overland travel. I followed his suor- 
gestion, and after the canteen was filled in the 
morning, it was covered with a piece of wet 
blanket and hung, with the cork left out, to the 
roof of the wag-on, in order to catch all the air 



I 20 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

that might be stirring. Under this damp treat- 
ment the yellow letters of "Lady Custer" faded 
out as effectually as did all semblance of what- 
ever delicacy of coloring the owner once pos- 
sessed. 

A short time after we set out, we left the valley 
of the Red River, with its fertile plantations, and 
entered a pine forest on the table-land, through 
which our route lay for a hundred and fifty miles. 
A great portion of the higher ground was sterile, 
and the forest much of the way was thinly in- 
habited. We had expected to hire a room in any 
farm-house at which we halted at the end of 
each day's journey, and have the privilege of 
sleeping in a bed. Camping on the ground was 
an old story to me after our long march in Vir- 
ginia ; but, with the prospect of using the bosom 
of mother Earth as a resting-place for the coming 
thirty years, we were willing to improve any 
opportunity to be comfortable when we could. 
The cabins that we passed on the first day dis- 
couraged us. Small, low, log huts, consisting of 
one room each, entirely separated and having a 
floored open space between them, were the cus- 
tomary architecture. The windows and doors 
were filled with the vacant faces of the filthy 
children of the poor white trash and negroes. 
The men and women slouched and skulked 



''PORE WHITE TRASH." 121 

around the cabins out of sight, and every sign of 
abject, loathsome poverty was visible, even in 
the gaunt and famished pigs that rooted around 
the doorway. I determined to camp out until we 
came to more inviting habitations, which, I regret 
to say, we did not find on that march. We had 
not brought the thin mattress and pillows that 
had been made for our traveling-wagon in Vir- 
ginia ; but the hardest sort of resting-place was 
preferable to braving the squalor of the huts 
along our way. 

My husband rolled his overcoat for my pillow, 
telling me that a soldier slept like a top with such 
an one, and it was much better than a saddle, in 
the hollow of which he had often laid his flaxen 
top-knot. But a woman cannot make herself into 
a good soldier all in a minute. If one takes hold 
of the thick, unwieldy material that Uncle Sam 
puts into the army overcoat, some idea can be 
gained of the rocky roll it makes when doing 
duty as a resting-place ; and anyone whose neck 
has made the steep incline from head to shoulder 
that this substitute for a pillow necessitates, is apt 
to waken less patriotic than when he retired. 
After repeated efforts to get accustomed to this, 
buoyed up by my husband's praise of my veteran- 
like behavior, I confided to Eliza that I should not 
be ungrateful for any device she might think out 



122 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

for my relief, if she would promise not to tell that 
I had spoken to her. The next day she gathered 
moss from the trees along the stream, and I felt 
that I could serve my country just as well by rest- 
ing on this soft bed. I had begged off from using 
a tent in that country, as there seemed to be no 
insect that was not poisonous, and even many of 
the vines and underbrush were dangerous to 
touch. My husband had the wagon placed in 
front of the tent every night when our march was 
ended, and lifted me in and out of the high bed- 
room, where I felt that nothing venomous could 
climb up and sting. The moss, though very com- 
fortable, often held in its meshes the horned toad, 
a harmless little mottled creature that had two 
tiny horns, which it turned from side to side in the 
gravest, most knowing sort of way. The officers 
sent these little creatures home by mail as curiosi- 
ties, and, true to their well-known indifference to 
air, they jumped out of the box at the journey's end 
in just the same active manner that they had hop- 
ped about under our feet. Still, harmless as they 
were held to be, they were not exactly my choice 
as bed-fellows, any more than the lizards the 
Texans call swifts, which also haunted the tangles 
of the moss. Eliza tried to shake out and beat it 
thoroughly, in order \.o dislodge any inhabitants, 
before making my bed. One night I found that 



124 TENTING ON THE PLAINS, 

I 

hay had been substituted, and felt myself rich in 
luxury. I remembered gladly that hay was so 
clean, so free from all natural history, and closed 
my eyes in gratitude. And then it smelt so good, 
so much better than the damp, vegetable odor of 
the moss. A smudge at the end of the wagon 
was rising about me to drive away mosquitoes, 
and though the smoke scalds the eyes in this 
heroic remedy, I still comforted myself with the 
fresh odor of the hay, and quietly thought that 
life in a manger was not the worst fate that could 
come to one. All this pervading sense of comfort 
was slightly disturbed in the night, when I was 
awakened by a munching and crunching at my 
ear. Wisps of hay were lying over the side of the 
wagon, as it was too warm to leave the curtains 
down, and the attraction proved too much for a 
stray mule, which was quietly eating the pillow 
from under my head. It was well our tent and 
wagon were placed to one side, quite off by them- 
selves, for the General would have waked the 
camp with his peals of laughter at my indignation 
and momentary fright. It did not need much 
persuasion to rout the mule after all the hubbub 
my husband made with his merriment, but I found 
that I inclined to the moss bed after that. 

As we advanced farther into the forest, Eliza 
received further whispered confidences about my 



THE LUXURY OF A PILLOW. 



125 



neck, stiff and sore from the roll of patriotic blue 
that was still the rest for my tired head, and she re- 
solved to make an attempt to get a feather pillow. 
One day she discovered, near our camp, a house 
that was cleaner than the rest we had seen, and 
began negotiations with the mistress. She offered 
a " greenback," as we had no silver then ; but they 
had never seen one, and would not believe that it 
was legal money. Finally, the woman said that, 
if we had any calico or muslin for sale, she would 
exchange her pillows for either the one or the 
other. Eliza forgot her diplomacy, and rather in- 
dignantly explained that we were not traveling 
pedlers. At last, after several trips to and from 
our camp, in which I was secretly interested, she 
made what she thought a successful trade by 
exchanging some blankets. Like the wag's de- 
scription of the first Pullman-car pillows, which he 
said he lost in his ear, they were diminutive ex- 
cuses for our idea of what one should be, but I 
cannot remember anything that ever impressed 
me as such a luxury; and I was glad to see that, 
when the pillows were installed in their place, the 
faith in my patriotism and in my willingness to 
endure privations was not shaken. 

The General was satisfied with his soldiers, and 
admired the manner in which they endured the 
trials of that hard experience. His perplexities 



126 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

departed when they took everything so bravely. 
He tried to arrange our marches every day so that 
w^e might not travel over fifteen miles. So far as 
I can remember, there was no one whose temper 
and strength was not tried to the uttermost, except 
my husband. His seeming indifference to excessive 
heat, his having long before conquered thirst, his 
apparent unconsciousness of the stings or bites of 
insects, were powerful aids in encountering those 
suffocating days. Frequently after a long march, 
when we all gasped for breath, and in our exhaus- 
tion flung ourselves down " anywhere to die," as 
we laughingly said, a fresh horse was saddled, and 
off went the General for a hunt, or to look up the 
prospects for water in our next day's journey. If 
this stifling atmosphere, to which we were daily 
subjected, disturbed him, we did not know it. He 
held that grumbling did not mend matters ; but I 
differed with him. I still think a little complain- 
ing, when the patience is sorely taxed, eases the 
troubled soul, though at that time I took good care 
not to put my theory into practice, for reasons I 
have explained, when the question of my joining 
the march hung in the balance. 

My life in a wagon soon became such an old 
story that I could hardly believe I had ever had a 
room. It constantly reminded me of my father. 
He had opposed my marrying in the army, as I sup- 



A HOME IN A WAGON. I 2 7 

pose most fond fathers do. His opposition caused 
me great suspense, and I thought, as all the very 
young are apt to, that it was hopeless misery. Now 
that the struggle was ended, I began to recall the 
arguments of my parents. Father's principal one, 
mindful of the deprivations he had seen officers' 
wives endure in Michigan's early days, was that, 
after the charm and dazzle of the epaulet had 
passed, I might have to travel "in a covered 
wagon like an emigrant." I told this reason of 
my father's to my husband, and he often laughed 
over it. When I was lifted from my rather lofty 
apartment, and set down in the tent in the dark — 
and before dawn in a pine forest it is dark — the 
candle revealed a twinkle in the eye of a man who 
could joke before breakfast. '' I wonder what 
your father would say now," was the oft-repeated 
remark, while the silent partner scrabbled around 
to get ready for the day. There was always a 
pervading terror of being late, and I could not 
believe but that it might happen, some day, that 
thousands of men would be kept waiting because 
a woman had lost her hair-pins. Imagine the 
ignominy of any of the little trifles that delay us 
in getting ourselves together, being the cause of 
detaining an expedition in its morning start on 
the march. Fortunately, the soldiers would have 
been kept in merciful ignorance of the cause of 



I 28 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the detention, as a commanding officer is not 
obliged to explain why he orders the trumpeter to 
delay the call of " boots and saddles;" but the 
chagrin would have been just as great on the part 
of the " camp-follower," and it would have given 
the color of truth to the General's occasional 
declaration that " it is easier to command a 
whole division of cavalry than one woman." I 
made no protest to this declaration, as I had ob- 
served, even in those early days of my married 
life, that, in matrimonial experiences, the men that 
make open statements of their wrongs in rather a 
pompous, boastful way, are not the real sufferers. 
Pride teaches subtlety in hiding genuine injuries^ 
Though I had a continued succession of frights, 
while prowling around the tent before day hunting 
my things, believing them lost sometimes, and thus 
being thrown into wild stampedes, I escaped the 
mortification of detaining the command. The 
Frenchman's weariness of a life that was given 
over to buttoning and unbuttoning, was mine, and 
in the short time between reveille and breakfast, I 
lived through much perturbation of mind, fearing 
I was behind time, and devoutly wished that 
women who followed the drum could have been 
clothed like the feathered tribe, and ready for the 
wing at a moment's notice. On this expedition I 
brought down the art of dressing in a hurry to so 



RECOMMENDA TION FOR A ^'CAMP FOLLOWERS \ 2g 

fine a point that I could take my bath and dress 
entirely in seven minutes. My husband timed me 
one day, without my knowledge, and I had the 
honor of having this added to a very brief list of 
my attributes as a soldier. There was a second 
recommendation, which did duty as a mild plaudit 
for years afterward. When faithful soldiers are 
discharged after their term of service has expired, 
they have papers given them by the Government, 
with statements of their ability and trustworthi- 
ness. Mine consisted in the words usually used 
in presenting me to a friend. Instead of referring 
to a few meagre accomplishments which my 
teachers had struggled to implant, as is the fash- 
ion of some exuberant husbands, w^ho proudly 
introduce their wives to intimate friends, the Gen- 
eral usually said, " Oh, I want you to know my 
wife ; she slept four months in a wagon.' 

Perhaps some people m the States may not 
realize that army women have a hard time even 
in saying their prayers. The closet that the New 
Testament tells us to frequent is seldom ours, for 
rarely does our frugal Government allow us one in 
army quarters large enough to crowd in our few 
gowns, much less to " enter in and shut the door"; 
while on a march like that in Texas, devotions 
would be somewhat disturbed when one kneeled 
down in a tent, uncertain whether it would be on 



I30 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



a centipede or a horned toad. To say a prayer 
undisturbed, it was necessary to wait until one 
went to bed. Fortunately, mine were brief, since 
I had nothing to ask for, as I believed the best of 
everything on earth had already been given to 
me. If I was tired, and fell asleep in the midst 
of my thanks, I could only hope the Heavenly 
Father would forgive me. I was often so ex- 
hausted at night, that it was hard to keep my eyes 
open after my head had touched the pillow, espe- 
cially after the acquisition of the blessed feather 
pillow. An army woman I love, the most con- 
sistent and honorable of her sex, was once so worn 
out after a day of danger and fatigue on a march, 
that she fell asleep while kneeling beside the bed 
in the room she occupied, saying her prayers ; and 
there she found herself, still on her knees, when 
the sun wakened her in the morning. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS OFFICERS ATTACKED 

WITH BREAK-BONE FEVER PROMISES OF BOLD FLOW- 
ING STREAMS INTRODUCTION TO THE PINE-TREE 

RATTLESNAKE SCORPIONS, TARANTULAS, CENTI- 
PEDES, CHIGGERS AND SEED-TICKS CROSSING THE 

77 



PONTON " I WENT A-FISHING. 



F 



'OR exasperating heat, recommend me to a 
pine forest. Those tall and almost branch- 
less Southern pines were simply smothering-. In 
the fringed tops the wind swayed the delicate 
limbs, while not a breath descended to us below. 
We fumed and fussed, but not ill-naturedly, when 
trying to find a spot in which to take a nap. If we 
put ourselves in a narrow strip of shadow made by 
the slender trunk of a tree, remorseless Sol followed 
persistently, and we drowsily dragged ourselves 
to another, to be pursued in the same determined 
manner and stared into instant wakefulness by the 
burning rays. 

The General had reveille sounded at 2 o'clock 
in the morning, causing our scamp to remark, sotto 
voce, that if we were to be routed out in the night, he 



132 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

thought he would eat his breakfast the evenhigr 
before, in order to save time. It was absolutely 
necessary to move before dawn, as the moment 
the sun came in sight the heat was suffocating. It 
was so dark when we set out that it was with diffi- 
culty we reached the main road, from our 
night's camp, in safety. My husband tossed me 
into the saddle, and cautioned me to follow as 
close as my horse could walk, as we picked our 
way over logs and through ditches or underbrush. 
Custis Lee * was dog-like in his behavior at these 
times. He seemed to aim to put his hoof exactly 
in the foot-print of the General's horse. In 
times of difficulty or moments of peril, he evident- 
ly considered that he was following the command- 
ing officer, rather than carrying me. I scarcely 
blamed him, much as I liked to control my own 
horse, and gladly let the bridle slacken on his neck 
as he cautiously picked his circuitous way ; but 
once on the main road, the intelligent animal al- 
lowed me to take control again. Out of the dark 
my husband's voice came cheerily, as if he were 
riding in a path of sunshine : " Are you all right ? " 
" Give Lee his head." " Trust that old plug of yours 
to bring you out ship-shape." This insult to my 



* My horse was captured from a staff-offieer of General Custis 
Lee during the war, purchased by my husband from the Govern- 
ment, and named for the Confederate general. 



THE DEWS OF THE SOUTH. 



13: 



Splendid, spirited, high-stepping F. F. V. — for he 
was that among horses, as well as by birth — was 
received calmly by his owner, especially as the 
sagacious animal was taking better care of me than 
I could possibly take of myself, and I spent a brief 
time in calling out a defense of him through the 
gloom of the forest. This little diversion was in- 
dulged in now and again by the General, to pro- 
voke an argument, and thus assure himself that I 
was safe and closely following ; and so it went on, 
before day and after dark ; there was no hour or 
circumstance out of which we did not extract 
some amusement. 

The nights, fortunately, were cool ; but such 
dews fell, and it was so chilly, that we were obliged 
to begin our morning march in thick coats, which 
were tossed off as soon as the sun rose. The dews 
drenched the bedding. I was sometimes sure that 
it was raining in the night, and woke my husband 
to ask to have the ambulance curtains of our bed 
lowered ; but it was always a false alarm; not a 
drop of rain fell in that blistering August. I soon 
learned to shut our clothes in a little valise at 
night, after undressing in the tent, to ensure dry 
linen in the penetrating dampness of the morning. 
My husband lifted me out of the wagon bedroom 
when reveille sounded, into the tent, and by the 
light of a tallow candle I had my bath and got 



134 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



into my clothes, combing my hair straight back, as 
it was too dark to part it. Then, to keep my shoes 
from being soaked with the wet grass, I was 
carried to the dining-tent, and Ufted upon my 
horse afterward. 

One of my hurried toilets was stopped short one 
morning, by the loss of the waist of my riding- 
habit. In vain I tossed our few traps about to 
find it, and finally remembered that I had ex- 
changed the waist for a jacket, and left it under a 
tree where we had been taking a siesta the day 
before. Eliza had brought in the blanket, books^ 
and hats, but alas for my dress body ! it was hope- 
lessly lost. In a pine forest, dark and thick with 
fallen trees, what good did one tallow dip do in 
the hasty search we made ? A column of thou- 
sands of men could not be detained for a woman's 
gown. My husband had asked me to braid the 
sleeves like his own velvet jacket. Five rows of 
gilt braid in five loops made a dash of color that 
he liked, which, though entirely out of place in a 
thoroughfare, was admissible in our frontier life. 
He regretted the loss, but insisted on sending for 
more gilt braid as soon as we were out of the 
wilderness, and then began to laugh to himself 
and wonder if the traveler that came after us, not 
knowing who had preceded him, might not think 
he had come upon a part of the wardrobe of a cir- 



THE GUIDE AND HIS MULE. \ -> - 

•JO 

cus troupe. It would have been rather serious 
joking", if in the small outfit in my valise I had not 
brought a jacket, for which, though it rendered me 
more of a fright than sun and wind had made me, 
I still was very thankful ; for without the happy 
accident that brought it along, I should have been 
huddled inside the closed ambulance, waistless 
and alone. Our looks did not enter into the 
question very much. All we thought of was, how 
to keep from being prostrated by the heat, and 
how to get rested after the march, for the next 
day's task. 

We had a unique character for a guide. He 
was a citizen of Texas, who boasted that not a 
road or a trail in the State was unfamiliar to him. 
His mule Betty was a trial ; she walked so fast 
that no one could keep up with her, but not faster 
did she travel than her master's tongue. As we 
rode at the head of the column, the sun pouring 
down upon our heads, we would call out to him, 
" In heaven's name, Stillman, how much longer is 
this to keep up ?" meaning. When shall we find a 
creek on which to camp ? " Oh, three miles 
further you're sure to find a bold-flowin' stream," 
was his confident reply ; and, sure enough, the 
grass began to look greener, the moss hung from 
the trees, the pines were varied by beautiful 
cypress, or some low-branched tree, and hope 



136 TEXTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Sprang up in our hearts. The very horses showed, 
by quickening step, they knew what awaited us. 
Our scorched and parched throats began to taste, 
in imagination, what w^as our idea of a bold-flow^- 
ing stream ; it was cool and Hmpid, dancing over 
pebbles on its merry way. We found ourselves in 
reality in the bed of a dried creek, nothing but 
pools of muddy water, with a coating of green 
mold on the surface. The Custers made use of 
this expression the rest of their lives. If ever we 
came to a puny, crawling driblet of water, they 
said, " This must be one of Stillman's bold-flow- 
ing streams." On we went again, w4th that fabri- 
cator calling out from Betty's back, " Sho' to find 
finest water in the land five miles on !" Whenever 
he had " been in these parts afore, he had ahvays 
found at all seasons a roaring torrent." One day 
we dragged through forty miles of arid land, and 
after passing the dried beds of three streams, the 
General was obliged to camp at last, on account 
of the exhausted horses, on a creek with pools of 
muddy, standing water, which StiUman, comingc^ 
back to the column, described as " rather low." 
This was our worst day, and we felt the heat in- 
tensely, as we usually finished our march and 
were in camp before the sun was very high. I do 
not remember one good drink of w ater on that 
march. When it w^as not muddy or stagnant, it 




GENERAL CUSTER AS A CADET. 



137 



138 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tasted of the roots of the trees. Some one had 
given my husband some claret for me when we 
set out, and but for that, I don't really know how 
the thirst of the midsummer days could have been 
endured. The General had already taught him- 
self not to drink between meals, and I was trying" 
to do so. All he drank was his mug of coffee 
in the early morning and at dinner, and cold 
tea or coffee, which Eliza kept in a bottle for 
luncheon. 

The privations did not quench the buoyancy of 
those gay young fellows. The General and his 
staff told stories and sang, and a man with good 
descriptive powers recounted the bills of fare of 
good dinners and choice viands he had enjoyed, 
while we knew we had nothing to anticipate in 
this wilderness but army fare. Sometimes, as we 
marched along, almost melted with heat, and our 
throats parched for water, the odor of cucumbers 
was wafted toward us. Stillman, the guide, being 
called on for an explanation, as we wondered if 
we were nearing a farm, slackened Betty, waited 
for us, and took down our hopes by explaining 
that it was a certain species of snake, which in- 
fested that part of the country. The scorpions, 
centipedes and tarantulas were daily encountered. 
I not only grew more and more unwilling to take 
my nap, after the march was over, under a tree. 



ANIMA TED NA TURE. 



139 



but made life a burden to my husband, till he 
gave up flinging" himself down anywhere to sleep, 
and induced him to take his rest in the traveling 
wagon. I had been indolently lying outstretched 
in a little grateful shade one day, when I was hur- 
riedly roused by some one, and moved to avoid 
what seemed to me a small, dried twig. It was 
the most venomous of snakes, called the pine-tree 
rattlesnake. It was very strange that we all 
escaped being stung or bitten, in the midst of 
thousands of those poisonous reptiles and insects. 
One teamster died from a scorpion's bite, and, un- 
fortunately, I saw his bloated, disfigured body as 
we marched by. It lay on a wagon, ready for 
burial, without even a coffin, as we had no lumber. 
What was most aggravating were two pests of 
that region, the seed-tick and the chigger. The 
latter bury their heads under the skin, and when 
they are swollen with blood, it is almost impossible 
to extract them without leaving the head imbedded. 
This festers, and the irritation is almost unbear- 
able. If they see fit to locate on neck, face or 
arms, it is possible to outwit them in their prog- 
ress ; but they generally choose that unattainable 
spot between the shoulders, and the surgical opera- 
tion of taking them out with a needle or knife- 
point, must devolve upon some one else. To ride 
thus with the skin on fire, and know that it must 



140 TENTIXG ON THE PLAINS. 

be endured till the march was ended, caused some 
grumbling, but it did not last long". The enemy 
being routed, out trilled a song or laugh from 
young and happy throats. If we came to a sandy 
stretch of ground, loud groans from the staff be- 
gan, and a cry, " We're in for the chiggers !" was 
an immediate warning. We all grew very wary 
of lying down to rest in such a locality, but were 
thankful that the little pests were not venomous. 
There's nothing like being where something dan- 
gerous lies in w^ait for you, to teach submission to 
what is only an irritating inconvenience. 

One of the small incidents out of which we in- 
variably extracted fun, was our march at dawn 
past the cabins of the few inhabitants. On the 
open platform, sometimes covered, but often with 
no roof, which connects the two log huts, the 
family are wont to sleep in hot weather. There 
they lay on rude cots, and were only wakened by 
the actual presence of the cavalry, of whose ap- 
proach they were unaware. The children sat up 
in bed, in wide-gaping wonder ; the grown people 
raised their heads, but instantly ducked under the 
covers again, thinking they would get up in a mo- 
ment, as soon as the cavalcade had passed. From 
time to time a head was cautiously raised, hoping 
to see the end of the column. Then such a shout 
from the soldiers, a fusillade of the wittiest com- 



AN A TTA CK OF FE VER. 1 4 1 

ments, such as only soldiers can make — for I never 
expect to hear brighter speeches than issue from 
a marching column — and down went the venture- 
some head, compelled to obey an unspoken mili- 
tary mandate and remain " under cover." There 
these people lay till the sun was scorching them, 
imprisoned under their bed-clothes by modesty, 
while the several thousand men filed by, two by 
two, and the long wagon-train in the rear had 
passed the house. 

There came a day when I could not laugh and 
joke with the rest. I was mortified to find myself ill 
— I, who had been pluming myself on being such 
a good campaigner, my desire to keep well being 
heightened by overhearing the General boasting 
to Tom that " nothing makes the old lady sick." 
We did not know that sleeping in the sun in that 
climate brings on a chill, and I had been fright- 
ened away from the snake-infested ground, where 
there might be shade, to the wagon for my after- 
noon sleep. It was embarrassing in the extreme. 
I could neither be sent back, nor remain in that 
wilderness, which was infested by guerillas. The 
surgeon compelled me to lie down on the march. 
It was very lonely, for I missed the laughter and 
story at the head of the column, which had light- 
ened the privations of the journey. The soil was so 
shallow that the wagon was kept on a continual 



142 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



joggle by the roots of the trees over which we 
passed. This unevenness was of course not notice- 
able on horseback, but now it was painfully so at 
every revolution of the wheels. , The General and 
Tom came back to comfort me every now and 
asrain, while Eliza "■ mammied " and nursed me, 
and rode in the seat by the driver. It was 
" break-bone fever." No one knowing about it 
can read these words and not feel a shudder. I 
believe it is not dangerous, but the patient is intro- 
duced, in the most painful manner, to every bone 
in his body. Incredible as it used to seem when in 
school we repeated the number of bones, it now be- 
came no longer a wonder, and the only marvel was, 
how some of the smallest on the list could con- 
tain so large an ache. I used to lie and speculate 
how one slender woman could possibly conceal 
so many bones under the skin. Anatomy had 
been on the list of hated books in school ; but I 
began then to study it from life, in a manner that 
made it likely to be remembered. The surgeon, as 
is the custom of the admirable men of that profes- 
sion in the army, paid me the strictest attention, 
and I swallowed quinine, it seemed to me, by the 
spoonful. As I had never taken any medicine to 
speak of, it did its duty quickly, and in a few days 
I was lifted into the saddle, tottering and light- 
headed, but partly relieved from the pain, and 



QUININE AS A DIET. 1 43 

very glad to get back to our military family, who 
welcomed me so warmly that I was aglow with 
gratitude. I wished to ignore the fact that I had 
fallen by the way, and was kept in lively fear that 
they would all vote me a bother. After that, my 
husband had the soldiers who were detailed for 
duty at headquarters, when they cut the wood for 
camp-fires, build a rough shade of pine branches 
over the wagon, when we reached camp. Even 
that troubled me, though the kind-hearted fellows 
did not seem to mind it ; but the General quieted 
me by explaining that the men, being excused from 
night duty as sentinels, would not mind building 
the shade as much as losing their sleep, and, be- 
sides, we were soon afterward out of the pine for- 
est and on the prairie. 

Our officers suffered dreadfully on that march, 
though they made light of it, and were soon merry 
after a trial or hardship was over. The drenching 
dews chilled the air that was encountered just at 
daybreak. They were then plunged into a steam 
bath from the overpowering sun, and the impure 
water told frightfully on their health. I have seen 
them turn pale and almost reel in the saddle, as 
we marched on. They kept quinine in their vest- 
pockets, and horrified me by taking large quanti- 
ties at any hour when they began to feel a chill 
coming on, or were especially faint. Our brother 



I 44 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Tom did not become quite strong, after nis attacli 
of fever, for a long time, and had inflammatory 
rheumatism at Fort Riley a year or more after- 
ward, which the surgeons attributed to his Texas 
exposure. I used to see the haggard face of the 
adjutant-general, Colonel Jacob Greene, grow 
drawn and gray with the inward fever that filled 
his veins and racked his bones with pain. The 
very hue of his skin comes back to me after all 
these years, for we grieved over his suffering, 
as_we had all just welcomed him back from the 
starvation of Libby Prison. 

I rode in their midst, month after month, ever 
revolving in my mind the question, whence came 
the inexhaustible supply of pluck that seemed 
at their command, to meet all trials and privations, 
just as their unfaltering courage had enabled them 
to go through the battles of the war ? And yet, 
how much harder it was to face such trials, unsup- 
ported by the excitement of the trumpet-call and 
the charge. There was no wild clamor of war to 
enable them to forget the absence of the common- 
est necessities of existence. In Texas and Kansas, 
the life was often for months unattended by ex- 
citement of any description. It was only to be 
endured by a grim shutting of the teeth, and an 
iron will. The mother of one of the fallen heroes of 
the Seventh Cavalry, who passed uncomplainingly 



FORTITUDE OF SOLDIERS. 145 

through the privations of the frontier, and gave up 
his Ufe at last, writes to me in a recent letter that 
she considers " those late experiences of hardship 
and suffering, so gallantly borne, by far the most 
interesting of General Custer's life, and the least 
known." For my part, I was constantly mystified 
as I considered how our officers, coming from all 
the wild enthusiasm of their Virginia Ufe, could, as 
they expressed it, "buckle down" to the dull, ex- 
hausting days of a monotonous march. 

Young as I then was, I thought that to endure, 
to fight for and inflexibly pursue, a purpose or 
general principle like patriotism, seemed to require 
far more patience and courage than when it is 
individualized. I did not venture to put my 
thoughts into words, for two reasons : I was too 
wary to let them think I acknowledged there were 
hardships, lest they might think I repented having 
come ; for I knew then, as I know now, but feared 
they did not, that I would go through it all a hun- 
dred times over, if inspired by the reasons that 
actuated me. In the second place, I had already 
found what a habit it is to ridicule and make light 
of misfortune or vicissitude. It cut me to the 
quick at first, and I thought the officers and sol- 
diers lacking in sympathy. But I learned to know 
what splendid, loyal friends they really were, if 
misfortune came and help was needed ; how they 



146 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

denied themselves to loan money, if it is the finan- 
cial difficulty of a friend ; how they nursed one 
another in illness or accident ; how they quietly 
fought the battles of the absent ; and one occasion 
I remember, that an officer, being ill, was unable 
to help himself when a soldier behaved in a 
most insolent manner, and his brother officer 
knocked him down, but immediately apologized 
to the captain for taking the matter out of his 
hands. A hundred ways of showing the most 
unswerving fidelity taught me, as years went on, 
to submit to what I still think the deplorable habit, 
if not of ridicule, of suppressed sympathy. I used 
to think that even if a misfortune was not serious, 
it ought to be recognized, and none were afraid of 
showing that they possessed truly tender, gen- 
tle, sympathetic natures, with me or with any 
woman that came among them. 

The rivers, and even the small streams, in Texas 
have high banks. It is a land of freshets, and the 
most innocent little rill can rise to a roaring tor- 
rent in no time. Anticipating these crossings, we 
had in our train a ponton bridge. We had to make 
long halts while this bridge was being laid, and 
then, oh ! the getting down to it. If the sun was 
high, and the surgeon had consigned me to the 
traveling-wagon, I looked down the deep gulley 
with more than inward quaking. My trembling 



DESCENT TO A RIVER. 1 . 7 

hands clutched wildly at the seat, and my head 
was out at the side to see my husband's face, as 
he directed the descent, cautioned the driver, and 
encouraged me. The brake was frequently not 
enough, and the soldiers had to man the wheels, 
for the soil was wet and slippery from the constant 
passing of the pioneer force, who had laid the 
bridge. The heavy wagons, carrying the boats 
and lumber for the bridge, had made the side-hill 
a difficult bit of ground to traverse. The four 
faithful mules apparently sat down and slid to the 
water's edge ; but the driver, so patient with my 
quiet imploring to go slowly, kept his strong foot 
on the brake and knotted the reins in his power- 
ful hands. I blessed him for his caution, and 
then at every turn of the wheel I implored him 
again to be careful. Finally, when I poured out my 
thanks at the safe transit, the color mounted in his 
brown face, as if he had led a successful charge. 
In talking at night to Eliza, of my tremors as we 
plunged down the bank and were bounced upon 
the ponton, which descended to the water's edge 
under the sudden rush with which we came, I 
added my praise of the driver's skill, which she 
carefully repeated as she slipped him, on the sly, 
the mug of coffee and hot biscuits with which she 
invariably rewarded merit, whether in officers or 
men. When I could, I made these descents on 



1 48 TEA'TIXG Oy THE PLAINS. 

horseback, and climbed up the opposite bank with 
my hands wound in Custis Lee's abundant mane. 

Ehza, in spite of her constant lookout for some 
variety for our table, could seldom find any vege- 
tables, even at the huts we passed. Corn pone 
and chine were the principal food of these shift- 
less citizens, butternut colored in clothing and 
complexion, indifferent alike to food and to drink. 
At the Sabine River the water was somewhat 
clearer. The soldiers, leading their horses, crossed 
carefully, as it was dangerous to stop here, lest the 
weight should carry the bridge under ; but they 
are too quick-witted not to watch every chance to 
procure a comfort, and they tied strings to their 
canteens and dragged them beside the bridge, 
getting, even in that short progress, one tolerably 
good drink. The wagon-train was of course a 
long time in crossing, and dinner looked dubious 
to our staff. Our faithful Eliza, as we talk over 
that march, will prove in her own language, better 
than I can portray, how she constantly bore our 
comfort on her mind. 

" Miss Libbie, do you mind, after we crossed the 
Sabine River, we went into camp ? Well, we 
hadn't much supplies, and the wagons wasn't up ; 
so, as I was awaitin' for you all, I says to the 
boys, ' Now, you make a fire, and I'll go a-fishin'.' 
The first thing, I got a fish — well, as long as my 



ELIZA'S FISH STORY. 



149 



arm. It was big, and jumped so it scart me, and I 
let the line go, but one of the men caught hold and 
jumped for me and I had him, and went to work 
on him right away. I cleaned him, salted him, 
rolled him in flour, and fried him ; and. Miss 
Libbie, we had a nice platter of fish, and the Gen- 
eral was just delighted when he came up, and he 
was surprised, too, and he found his dinner — for I 
had some cold biscuit and a bottle of tea in the 
lunch-box — while the rest was awaitin' for the 
supplies to come up. For while all the rest was 
awaitin', I went fishin', mind you !" 



CHAPTER V. 

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS OUR CAMP AT HEMPSTEAD 

HOSPITALITY OF SOUTHERN PLANTERS THE 

general's DEER-HUNTING A BAPTISM OF GORE 

ESCAPE FROM BEING BLOWN UP BY POWDER 

ELIZA ESTABLISHES AN ORPHAN ASYLUM THE 

PROTECTING CARE THAT OFFICERS SHOW TO 
WOMEN. 

A S we came out of the forest, the country im- 
proved somewhat. The farm-houses began 
to show a httle look of comfort, and it occurred to 
us that we might now vary the monotony of our 
fare by marketing. My husband and I sometimes 
rode on in advance of the command, and ap- 
proached the houses with our best manners, 
sohciting the privilege of buying butter and eggs. 
The farmer's wife was taking her first look at 
Yankees, but she found that we neither wore 
horns nor were cloven-footed, and she even so far 
unbent as to apologize for not having butter, add- 
ing, what seemed then so flimsy an excuse, that 
" I don't make more than enough butter for our 
own use, as we are only milking seven cows 



I 



our OF THE WILDERNESS. i r j 

now." We had yet to learn that what makes a 
respectable dairy at home, was nothing in a coun- 
try where the cows give a cupful of milk and all 
run to horns. It was a great relief to get out of 
the wilderness, but though our hardships were 
great, I do not want them to appear to outnumber 
the pleasures. The absence of creature comforts 
is easily itemized. We are either too warm or too 
cold, we sleep uncomfortably, we have poor food, 
we are wet by storms, we are made ill by ex- 
posure. Happiness cannot be itemized so readily; 
it is hard to define what goes to round and com- 
plete a perfect day. We remember hours of pleas- 
ure as bathed in a mist that blends all colors into 
a roseate hue ; but it is impossible to take one tint 
from colors so perfectly mingled, and define how 
it adds to theperfect whole. 

. The days now seemed to grow shorter and 
brighter. In place of the monotonous pines, we 
had magnolia, mulberry, pecan, persimmon and 
Hve-oak, as well as many of our own Northern 
trees, that grew along the streams. The cactus, 
often four feet high, was covered with rich red 
blossoms, and made spots of gorgeous color in the 
prairie grass. I had not then seen the enormous 
cacti of old Mexico, and four feet of that plant 
seemed immense, as at home we labored to get 
one to grow six inches. The wild-flowers were 



152 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



charming in color, variety and luxuriance. The 
air, even then beginning to taste of the sea, blew 
softly about us. Stillman no longer blackened his 
soul with prophecies about the streams on which 
we nightly pitched our tents. The water did flow 
in them, and though they were then low, so that 
the thousands of horses were scattered far up and 
down when watering-time came, the green scum 
of sluggish pools was a thing of the past. 

A few days before we reached what was to be 
a permanent camp, a staff-officer rode out to meet 
us, and brought some mail. It was a strange sen- 
sation to feel ourselves restored by these letters to 
the outside world. General Custer received a 
great surprise. He was brevetted major, lieuten- 
ant-colonel and brigadier-general in the regular 
army. The officers went off one side to read their 
sweethearts' letters ; and some of our number re- 
newed their youth, sacrificed in that dreadful for- 
est to fever, when they read the good news of the 
coming of their wives by sea. At Hempstead we 
halted, and the General made a permanent camp, 
in order to recruit men and horses after their ex- 
hausting march. Here General Sheridan and some 
of his staff came, by way of Galveston, and 
brought with them our father Custer, whom the 
General had sent for to pay us a visit. General 
Sheridan expressed great pleasure at the appear- 



COMMEND A TION FROM THE CHIEF. \ c -> 

ance of the men and horses, and heard with rehef 
and satisfaction of the orderly manner in which 
they had marched through the enemy's country, 
of how few horses had perished from the heat, 
and how seldom sunstroke had occurred. He 
commended the General — as he knew how to do so 
splendidly — and placed him in command of all the 
cavalry in the State. Our own Division then 
numbered four thousand men. 

I was again mortified to have to be compelled to 
lie down for a day or two, as so many weeks in the 
saddle had brought me to the first discovery of a 
spinal column. It was nothing- but sheer fatigue, 
for I was perfectly well, and could laugh and talk 
with the rest, though not quite equal to the effort 
of sitting upright, especially as we had nothing 
but camp-stools, on which it is impossible to rest. 
Indisposition, or even actual illness, has less ter- 
rors in army life than in the States. We were not 
condemned to a gloomy upper chamber in a house, 
and shut in alone with a nurse whom we had never 
before seen. In our old life, ailing people lay on a 
lounge in the midst of all the garrison, who were 
coming and going a dozen times a day, asking, 
" How does it go now?" and if you had studied up 
anything that they could do for you ! I princi- 
pally recall being laid up by fatigue, because of the 
impetuous assault that my vehement father Custer 



1^4 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

made on his son for allowing me to share the dis- 
comforts ; and when I defended my husband by 
explaining how I had insisted upon coming, he 
only replied, " Can't help it if you did. Arm- 
strong, you had no right to put her through such 
a jaunt." It was amusing to see the old man's 
horror when our staff told him what we had been 
through. It would have appeared that I was his 
own daughter, and the General a son-in-law, by 
the manner in which he renewed his attack on the 
innocent man. Several years afterward it cost 
Lieutenant James Calhoun long pleading, and a 
probationary state of two years, before the old 
man would consent to his taking his daughter 
Margaret into the army. He shook his gray head 
determinedly, and said, " Oh, no ; you don't get 
me to say she shall go through what Libbie has." 
But the old gentleman was soon too busy with his 
own affairs, defending himself against not only 
the ingenious attacks of his two incorrigible boys, 
but the staff, some of whom had known him in 
Monroe. His eyes twinkled, and his face wrinkled 
itself into comical smiles, as he came every morn- 
ing with fresh tales of what a " night of it he had 
put in." He had a collection of mild vituperations 
for the boyc^ .gathered from Maryland, Ohio and 
Mklifgan, where he had lived, which, extensive as 
the list was, did not, in my mind, half meet the 
situation. 



CAMP A T HEMPSTEAD. 1 c r 

The stream on which we had encamped was 
wide and deep, and had a current. Our tents 
were on the bank, which gently sloped to the 
water. We had one open at both ends, over which 
was built a shade of pine boughs, which was ex- 
tended in front far enough for a porch. Some lum- 
ber from a ponton bridge was made into the un- 
usual luxury of a jfloor. My husband still indulged 
my desire to have the traveling-wagon at the rear, 
so that I might take up a safe position at night, 
when sleep interrupted my vigils, over the insects 
and reptiles that were about us constantly. The 
cook-tent, with another shade over it, was near us, 
where Eliza flourished a skillet as usual. The staff 
were at some distance down the bank, while the 
Division was stretched along the stream, having, at 
last, plenty of water. Beyond us, fifty miles of 
prairie stretched out to the sea. We encamped on 
an unused part of the plantation of the oldest 
resident of Texas, who came forth with a welcome 
and offers of hospitality, which we declined, as 
our camp was comfortable. His wife sent me over 
a few things to make our tent habitable, as I sup- 
pose her husband told her that our furniture con- 
sisted of a bucket and two camp-stools. There's 
no denying that I sank down into one of the chairs, 
which had a back, with a sense of enjoyment of 
what seemed to me the greatest luxury I had ever 



156 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



known. The milk, vegetables, roast of mutton, 
jelly, and other things which she also sent, were 
not enough to tempt me out of the delightful hol- 
low, from which I thought I never could emerge 
again. But military despots pick up their families 
and carry them out to their dinner, if they refuse 
to walk. The new neighbors offered us a room 
with them, but the General never left his men. 
and it is superfluous to say that I thought our 
clean, new hospital tent, as large again as a wall- 
tent, and much higher, was palatial after the trials 
of the pine forest. 

The old neighbor continued his kindness, which 
was returned by sending him game after the Gen- 
eral's hunt, and protecting his estate. He had owned 
130 slaves, with forty in his house. He gave us 
dogs and sent us vegetables, and spent many hours 
under our shade. He had lived under eight govern- 
ments in his Texas experience, and, possibly, the 
habit of " speeding the parting and welcoming the 
coming guest " had something to do with his hos- 
pitality. I did not realize how Texas had been 
tossed about in a game of battle-door and shuttle- 
cock till he told me of his life under Mexican rule, 
the Confederacy, and the United States. 

I find mention, in an old letter to my parents, of 
a great luxury that here appeared, and quote the 
words of the exuberant and much underlined girl 



ELIZA'S LAUNDRY. I57 

missive : " I rejoice to tell you that I am the happy 
possessor of a mattress. It is made of the moss 
which festoons the branches of all the trees at the 
South. The moss is prepared by boiling it, then 
burying it in the ground for a long time, till only 
the small thread inside is left, and this looks like 
horse-hair. An old darkey furnished the moss for 
three dollars, and the whole thing only cost seven 
dollars — very cheap for this country. We are 
living finely now; we get plenty of eggs, butter, 
lard and chickens. Eliza cooks better than ever, 
by a few logs, with camp-kettles and stew-pans. 
She has been washing this past week, and drying 
her things on a line tied to the tent-poles and on 
bushes, and ironing on the ground, with her iron- 
ing-sheet held down by a stone on each corner. 
To-day we are dressed up in white. She invites 
us to mark Sunday by the luxury of wearing white. 
' Her ole miss used to.' We are regulated by the 
doings of that ' ole miss,' and I am glad that 
among the characteristics of my venerable pre- 
decessor, which we are expected to follow, wear- 
ing white gowns is included." 

Eliza, sitting here beside me to-day, has just 
reminded me of that week, as it was marked in her 
memory by a catastrophe. Eliza's misfortunes were 
usually within the confines of domestic routine. I 
quote her words: " It was on the Gros Creek, Miss 



I q;8 • TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Libbie, that I had out that big wash, and all your 
lace-trimmed things, and all the Ginnel's white 
linen pants and coats. I didn't know nothin' 'bout 
the high winds then, but I ain't like to forget 'em 
ever again. The first thing I knew, the line was 
jest lifted up, and the clothes jest spread in every 
direction, and I jest stood still and looked at 'em, 
and I says, * Is this Texas ? How long am I to con- 
tend with this ? ' [With hands uplifted and a camp- 
meeting roll in her eyes.] But I had to go to 
work and pick 'em all up. Some fell in the sand, 
and some on the grass. I gathered 'em all, with 
the sun boiling down hot enough to cook an ^^%. 
While I was a-pickin' 'em up, the Ginnel was 
a-standin' in the tent entrance, wipin' down his 
moustache, like he did when he didn't want us to 
see him laughin'. Well, Miss Libbie, I was that mad 
when he hollered out to me, ' Well, Eliza, you've 
got a spread-eagle thar.' Oh, I was so mad and 
hot, but he jest bust right out laughin'. But there 
wasn't anything to do but rinse and hang 'em up 
again." 

We had been in camp but a short time, when the 
daughter of the newly appointed collector of the 
port came from their plantation near to see us. 
She invited me to make my home with them while 
we remained, but I was quite sure there was noth- 
ing on earth equal to our camp. The girl's father 



SOUTHERN SWEETff EAR TING. 



159 



had been a Union man during the war, and was 
hopelessly invalided by a long political imprison- 
ment. I remember nothing bitter, or even gloomy, 
about that hospitable, delightful family. The 
young girl's visit was the precursor of many more, 
and our young officers were in clover. There 
were three young women in the family, and they 
came to our camp, and rode and drove with us, 
while we made our first acquaintance with South- 
ern home life. The house was always full of 
guests. The large dining-table was not long 
enough, however, unless placed diagonally across 
the dining-room, and it was sometimes laid three 
times before all had dined. The upper part of the 
house was divided by a hall running the length of 
the house. On one side the women and their 
guests, usually a lot of rollicking girls, were quar- 
tered, while the men visitors had rooms opposite ; 
and then I first saw the manner in which a South- 
ern gallant comes courting or flirting. He rode up 
to the house, with his servant, on another horse, 
carrying a portmanteau. They came to stay sev- 
eral weeks. I wondered that there was ever an un- 
congenial marriage at the South, when a man had 
such a chance to see his sweetheart. This was 
one of the usages of the country that our North- 
ern men adopted when they could get leave to be 
absent from camp, and delightful visits we all had. 



l6o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

It seemed a great privilege to be again with 
women, after the long season in which I had only 
Eliza to represent the sex. But I lost my presence 
of mind when I went into a room for the first time 
and caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror. The 
only glass I had brought from the East was broken 
early in the march, and I had made my toilet by 
feeling. The shock of the apparition comes back 
to me afresh, and the memory is emphasized by 
my fastidious mother's horror when she saw me 
afterward. I had nothing but a narrow-brimmed 
hat with which to contend against a Texas sun. 
My face was almost parboiled, and swollen with 
sunburn, while my hair was faded and rough. Of 
course, when I caught the first glimpse of myself 
in the glass, I instantly hurried to the General and 
Tom, and cried out indignantly, " Why didn't 
you tell me how horridly I looked ?" — the incon- 
sistent woman in me forgetting that it would not 
have made my ugliness any easier to endure. My 
husband hung his head in assumed humility 
when he returned me to my mother, six 
months later ; my complexion seemingly hope- 
lessly thickened and darkened, for, though 
happily it improved after living in a house, it 
never again looked as it did before the Texas 
life. My indignant mother looked as if her 
son-in-law was guilty of an unpardonable crime. 



HOSPITALITY OF PLANTERS. ' 1 6 I 

I told her, rather flippantly, that it had been 
offered up on the altar of my country, and she 
ought to be glad to have so patriotic a family, 
but she withered the General with a look that 
spoke volumes. He took the first opportunity to 
whisper condescendingly that, though my mother 
was ready to disown me, and quite prepared to 
annihilate him, he would endeavor not to cast me 
off if I was black, and would try to like me " not- 
withstanding all." 

The planters about the country began to seek 
out the General, and invite him to go hunting ; and, 
as there was but little to do while the command 
was recruiting from the march, he took his father 
and the staff and went to the different plantations 
where the meet was planned. The start was made 
long before day, and breakfast was served at the 
house where the hunters assembled ; dinner being 
enjoyed at the same hospitable board on the re- 
turn at night. Each planter brought his hounds, 
and I remember the General's delight at his first 
sight of the different packs— thirty-seven dogs in 
all— and his enthusiasm at finding that every dog 
responded to his master's horn. He thereupon 
purchased a horn, and practiced in camp until he 
nearly split his cheeks in twain, not to mention the 
spasms into which we were driven ; for his five 
hounds, presents from the farmers, ranged them- 



I 62 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

selves in an admiring and sympathetic semicircle, 
accompanying all his practicing by tuning their 
voices until they reached the same key. I had no 
idea it was such a difficult thing to learn to sound 
notes on a horn. When we begged off sometimes 
from the impromptu serenades of the hunter and 
his dogs, the answer was, '' I am obliged to prac- 
tice, for if anyone thinks it is an easy thing to blow 
on a horn, just let him try it." Of course Tom 
caught the fever, and came in one day with the 
polished horn of a Texas steer ready for action. 
The two were impervious to ridicule. No detailed 
description of their red, distended cheeks, bulging 
eyes, bent and laborious forms, as they strug- 
gled, suspended the operation. The early stages 
of this horn music gave little idea of the gay pict- 
ure of these debonair and spirited athletes, as 
they afterward appeared. When their musical 
education was completed, they were wont to leap 
into the saddle, lift the horn in unconscious grace 
to their lips, curbing their excited and rearing 
horses with the free hand, and dash away amidst 
the frantic leaping, barking and joyous demon- 
stration of their dogs. 

At the first hunt, when one of our number killed 
a deer, the farmers made known to our officers, on 
the sly, the old-established custom of the chase. 
While Captain Lyon stood over his game, volubly 



A BAPTISM OF GORE. I 63 

narrating, in excited tones, how the shot had been 
sent and where it had entered, a signal, which he 
was too absorbed to notice, was given, and the 
crowd rushed upon him and so plastered him 
with blood from the deer that scarcely an inch of 
his hair, hands and face was spared, while his gar- 
ments were red from neck to toes. After this 
baptism of gore, they dragged him to our tent on 
their return to exhibit him, and it was well that he 
was one of the finest-hearted fellows in the world, 
for day and night these pestering fellows kept up 
the joke. Notwithstandmg he had been subjected 
to the custom of the country, which demands that 
the blood of the first deer killed in the chase shall 
anoint the hunter, he had glory enough through 
his success to enable him to submit to the penalty. 
Tom also shot a deer that day, but his glory was 
dimmed by a misfortune, of which he seemed fated 
never to hear the last. The custom was to place one 
or two men at stated intervals in different parts 
of the country where the deer were pretty sure to 
run, and Tom was on stand watching through the 
woods in the direction from which the sound of 
the dogs came. As the deer bounded toward 
him, he was so excited that when he fired, the shot 
went harmlessly by the buck and landed in one 
of the General's dogs, killing the poor hound in- 
stantly. Though this was a loss keenly felt, there 



164 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

was no resisting the chance to guy the hunter. 
Even after Tom had come to be one of the best 
shots in the Seventh Cavalry, and when the Gen- 
eral never went hunting without him, if he could 
help it, he continued to say, " Oh, Tom's a good 
shot, a sure aim — he's sure to hit something ! " 
Tom was very apt, also, to find newspaper clippings 
laid around, with apparent carelessness by his 
brother, where he would see them. For example, 
like this one, which I have kept among some old 
letters, as a reminder of those merry days : " An 
editor went hunting the other day, for the first 
time in twenty-two years, and he was lucky enough 
to bring down an old farmer by a shot in the leg. 
The distance was sixty-six yards." 

We had long and delightful rides over the level 
country. Sometimes, my husband and I, riding 
quietly along at twilight, for the days were still too 
warm for much exercise at noon-time, came upon 
as many as three coveys of quail scurrying to the 
underbrush. In a short walk from camp he could 
bag a dozen birds, and we had plenty of duck in 
the creek near us. The bird dog was a perpetual 
pleasure. She was the dearest, chummiest sort of 
house-doof, and when we took her out she still 
visited with us perpetually, running to us every 
now and again to utter a little whine, or to have 
us witness her tail, which, in her excitement in 



RIDING AS A PASTIME. 1 65 

rushing through the underbrush, cacti and weeds, 
was usually scratched, torn and bleeding. The 
country was so dry that we could roam at will, re- 
gardless of roads. Our horses were accustomed 
to fording streams, pushing their way through 
thickets and brambles, and becoming so interested 
in making a route through them that my habit 
sometimes caught in the briars, and my hat was 
lifted off by the low-hanging moss and branches; 
and if I was not very watchful, the horse would 
go through a passage between two trees just wide 
enough for himself, and wipe me off, unless I 
scrambled to the pommel. The greater the ob- 
stacles my husband encountered, even in his sports, 
the more pleasure it was to him. His own horses 
were so trained that he shot from their backs with- 
out their moving. Mine would also stand fire, and 
at the report of a gun, behaved much better than 
his mistress. 

Eliza, instead of finding the General wearing 
his white linen to celebrate Sunday, according to 
her observances, was apt to get it on week-days 
after office-hours, far too often to suit her. On 
the Sabbath, she was immensely puffed up to see 
him emerge from the tent, speckless and spotless, 
because she said to me, "Whilst the rest of the 
officers is only too glad to get a white shirt, the 
Ginnel walks out among 'em all, in linen from 



1 66 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

top to toe." She has been sitting beside me, talk- 
ing- over a day at that time. " Do you mind, Miss 
Libbie, that while we was down in Texas the 
Ginnel was startin' off on a deer-hunt, I jest went 
up to him and tole him, ' Now, Ginnel, you go take 
off them there white pants.' He said so quiet, 
sassy, cool, roguish-like, 'The deer always like 
something white ' — telling me that jest 'cause he 
wanted to keep 'em on. Well, he went, all the 
same, and when he came back, I says, ' I don't 
think the deer saw you in those pants.' He was 
covered with grass-stains and mud, and a young 
fawn swinging across the saddle. But them pants 
was mud and blood, and green and yellow blotches, 
from hem to bindin'. But he jest laughed at me 
because I was a-scoldin', and brought the deer 
out to me, and I skinned it the fust time I ever 
did, and cooked it next day, and we had a nice 
dinner." 

At that time Eliza was a famous belle. Our color- 
ed coachman, Henry, was a permanent fixture at the 
foot of her throne, while the darkies on the neigh- 
boring plantations came nightly to worship. She 
bore her honors becomingly, as well as the fact 
that she was the proud possessor of a showy out- 
fit, including silk dresses. The soldiers to whom 
Eliza had been kind in Virginia, had given her 
clothes that they had found m the caches where 



ESC A PE FROM AN EXPLOSION. 1 6 / 

the farmers endeavored to hide their valuables 
during the war. Eliza had made one of these 
very receptacles for her " ole miss " before she left 
the plantation, and while her conscience allowed 
her to take the silken finery of some other woman 
whom she did not know, she kept the secret of the 
hiding-place of her own people's valuables until 
after the war, when the General sent her home in 
charge of one of his sergeants to pay a visit. 
Even the old mistress did not know the spot that 
Eliza had chosen, which had been for years a 
secret, and she describes the joy at sight of her, 
and her going to the place in the field and dig- 
ging up the property " with right smart of money, 
too, Miss Libbie— enough, with that the Ginnel 
gave me to take home, to keep 'em till the crops 
could be harvested." 

This finery of Eliza's drove a woman servant at 
the next place to plan a miserable revenge, which 
came near sending us all into another world. We 
were taking our breakfast one morning, with the 
table spread under the awning in front of our tent. 
The air, not yet heated by the sun, came over the 
prairie from the sea. The little green swift and 
the chameleon, which the General had found in 
the arbor roof and tamed as pets, looked down 
upon as reposeful and pretty a scene as one could 
wish, when we suddenly discovered a blaze in the 



1 68 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

cook-tent, where we had now a stove — but EHza 
shall tell the story : " When I fust saw the fire, 
Miss Libbie, I was a-waitin' on you at breakfast. 
Then the first thought was the Ginnel's powdfer- 
can, and I jest dropped everythin' and ran and 
found the blaze was a-runnin' up the canvas of 
my tent, nearly reachin' the powder. The can 
had two handles, and I ketched it up and ran out- 
side. When I first got in the tent, it had burnt 
clar up to the ridge-pole on one side. Some things 
in my trunk was scorched mightily, and one side 
of it was pretty well burnt. The fire was started 
right behind my trunk, not very near the cook-stove. 
The Ginnel said to me how cool and deliberate I 
was, and he told me right away that if my things 
had been destroyed, I would have everythin' re- 
placed, for he was bound I wasn't going to lose 
nothin'." 

My husband, in this emergency, was as cool 
as he always was. He followed Eliza as she ran 
for the powder-can, and saved the tent and its con- 
tents from destruction, and, without doubt, saved 
our lives. The noble part that I bore in the 
moment of peril was to take a safe position m 
our tent, wring my hands and cry. If there 
was no one else to rush forward in moments of dan- 
ger, courage came unexpectedly, but I do not recall 
much brave volunteering on my part. 



HOSPITALITY OF THE KITCHEN. j 6q 

Eliza put such a broad interpretation upon the 
General's oft-repeated instruction not to let any 
needy person go away from our tent or quarters 
hungry, that occasionally we had to protest. She 
describes to me now his telling her she was carry- 
ing her benevolence rather too far, and her reply- 
ing, " Yes, Ginnel, I do take in some one once and 
a while, of and on." " Yes," he replied to me, " more 
on than off, I should say." " One chile I had to hide 
in the weeds a week. Miss Libbie. The Ginnel 
used to come out to the cook-tent and stand there 
kinder careless like, and he would spy a Httle path 
running out into the weeds. Well, he used to carry 
me high and dry about them httle roads leading 
off to folks he said I was a-feedin'. I would say, 
when I saw him lookin' at the little path in the 
weeds, 'Well, what is it, Ginnel ?' He would look 
at me so keen-like out of his eyes, and say, ' That's 
what /say.' Then he'd say he was goin' to get a 
couple of bloodhounds, and run 'em through the 
bushes to find out just how many I was a-feedin'. 
Then, Miss Libbie, we never did come to a brush 
or a thicket but that he would look around at me 
so kinder sly like, and tell me that would be a fust- 
rate ranch for me. Then I would say, ' Well, it's 
a good thing I do have somebody sometimes, 
'cause my cook-tent is alius' stuck way off by itself, 
and its lonesome, and sometimes I'm so scart.' 



170 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



" But you know, Miss Libbie," she added, afraid 
that I might think she reflected on one whose 
memory she reveres, " my tent was obhged to be a 
good bit off, 'cause the smell of the cookin' took 
away the Ginnel's appetite ; he was so uncertain 
like in his eatin', you remember." 

In Texas, two wretched little ragamuffins - one 
of the poor white trash and another a negro— -were 
kept skulking about the cook-tent, making long, 
circuitous detours to the creek for water, for fear 
we would see them, as they said " Miss Lize 
tole us you'd make a scatter if you knew ' no 
count ' chillern was a-bein' fed at the cook-tent." 
They slipped into the underbrush at our approach, 
and lay low in the grass at the rear of the tent if 
they heard our voices. The General at first thought 
that, after Eliza had thoroughly stuffed them and 
made them fetch and carry for her, they would 
disappear, and so chose to ignore their presence, 
pretending he had not seen them. But at last they 
appeared to be a permanent addition, and we con- 
cluded that the best plan would be to acknowledge 
their presence and make the best of the infliction ; 
so we named one Texas, and the other Jeff. Eliza 
beamed, and told the orphans, who capered out 
boldly in sight for the first time, and ran after 
Miss " Lize " to do her bidding. Both of them, 
from being starved, wretched, and dull, grew quite 



OUR BUNKIES. 



171 



" peart " under her good care. The first evidence 
of gratitude I had was the creeping into the tent of 




the little saffron-colored 
white boy, with downcast 
eyes, mumbling that " Miss 
Lize said that I could pick 
the scorpions out of your 
shoes." I asked, in wonder 
-one spark of generosity 
blazing up before its final 
obliteration — " And how in 
the name of mercy do you 
get on with the things your- 
self ?" He lifted up a di- 
minutive heel, and proudly showed me a scar. 
The boy had probably never had on a pair 



172 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of shoes ; consequently this part of his pedal 
extremity was absolutely so callous, so evidently 
obdurate to any object less penetrating than a 
sharpened spike driven in with a hammer, I found 
myself wondering- how a scorpion's little spear 
could have effected an entrance through the 
seemingly impervious outer cuticle. Finally, I 
concluded that at a more tender age that " too 
solid flesh " may have been susceptible to an " hon- 
orable wound." It turned out that this cowed and 
apparently lifeless little midget was perfectly in- 
difi"erent to scorpions. By this time, I no longer 
pretended to courage of any sort ; I had found 
one in my trunk, and if, after that, I was com- 
pelled to go to it, I flung up the lid, ran to the 
other side of the tent, and " shoo-shooed " with that 
eminently senseless feminine call which is used 
alike for cows, geese, or any of these acknowledged 
foes. Doubtless a bear would be greeted with 
the same word, until the supposed occupants had 
run off. Night and morning my husband shook 
and beat my clothes while he helped me to dress. 
The officers daily came in with stories of the 
trick, so common to the venomous reptiles, of hid- 
ing between the sheets, and the General then even 
shook the bedding in our eyrie bedroom. Of all 
this he was relieved by the boy that Eliza called 
^' poor little picked sparrow," who was appointed 



THE BITE OF A CENTIPEDE. j -i-y 

as my maid. Night and morning the yellow dot 
ran his hands into shoes, stockings, night-gown, 
and dress-sleeves, in all the places where the scor- 
pions love to lurk ; and I bravely and generously 
gathered myself into the armchair while the 
search went on. 

Eliza has been reminding me of our daily terror 
of the creeping, venomous enemy of those hot 
lands. She says, " One day. Miss Libbie, I got a 
bite, and I squalled out to the Ginnel, ' Somethin's 
bit me ! ' The Ginnel, he said, ' Bit you ! bit you 
whar ? ' I says ' On my arm; ' and, Miss Libbie, it 
was pizen, for my arm it just swelled enormous 
and got all up in lumps. Then it pained me so 
the Ginnel stopped a-laughin' and sent for the 
doctor, and he giv' me a drink of whisky. Then 
what do you think ! when I got better, didn't he go 
and say I was playin' off on him, just to get a 
big drink of whisky. But I clar' to you, Miss 
Libbie, I was bad off that night. The centipede 
had crept into my bedclothes, and got a good 
chance at me, I can tell you." 

Our surgeon was a naturalist, and studied up 
the vipers and venomous insects of that almost 
tropical land. He showed me a captured scorpion 
one day, and, to make me more vigilant, infuriated 
the loathsome creature till it flung its javelin of 
a tail over on its back and stung itself to death. 



174 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Legends of what had happened to army women 
who had disregarded the injunctions for safety 
were handed down from elder to subaltern, and a 
plebe fell heir to these stories as much as to the 
tactics imparted by his superiors, or the campaign- 
ing lore. I hardly know when I first heard of the 
unfortunate woman who lingered too far behind 
the cavalcade, in riding for pleasure or marching, 
and was captured by the Indians, but for ten years 
her story was related to me by officers of all 
ages and all branches of the service as a warning. 
In Texas, the lady who had been frightfully stung 
by a centipede pointed every moral. The sting 
was inflicted before the war, and in the far back 
days of " angel sleeves," which fell away from the 
arm to the shoulder. Though this misfortune 
dated back from such a distant period, the young 
officers, in citing her as a warning to us to be 
careful, described the red marks all the way up 
the arm, with as much fidelity as if they had seen 
them. No one would have dreamed that the 
story had filtered through so many channels. But 
surely one needed little warning of the centipede. 
Once seen, it made as red stains on the memory 
as on the beautiful historic arm that was used to 
friofhten us. The Arabs call it the mother of 
forty-four, alluding to the legs; and the swift man- 
ner in which it propels itself over the ground, aid- 



WARFARE ON THE TARANTULA. i yc 

ed by eight or nine times as many feet as are al- 
lotted to ordinary reptiles, makes one habitually 
place himself in a position for a quick jump or 
flight, while campaigning in Texas. We had to be 
watchful all the time we were in the South. Even 
in winter, when wood was brought in and laid 
down beside the fire-place, the scorpions, torpid 
with cold at first, crawled out of knots and crevices, 
and made a scattering till they were captured. 
One of my friends was stationed at a post where 
the quarters were old and of adobe, and had been 
used during the war for stables by the Confed- 
erates. It was of no use to try to exterminate 
these reptiles ; they run so swiftly it takes a deft 
hand and a sure stroke to finish them up. Our 
officers grew expert in devising means to protect 
themselves, and, in this instance, a box of moist 
mud, with a shingle all ready, was kept in the quar- 
ters. When a tarantula showed himself, he was 
plastered on the wall. It is impossible to describe 
how loathsome that great spider is. The round 
body and long, far-reaching legs are covered with 
hairs, each particular hair visible; and the satanic 
eyes bulge out as they come on in your direction, 
making a feature of every nightmare for a long 
time after they are first seen. The wife of an 
officer, to keep these horrors from dropping on her 
bed as they ran over the ceiling, had a sheet fas- 



I 76 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tened at the four corners and let down from the 
rough rafters to catch all invaders, and thus en- 
sured herself undisturbed sleep. 

Officers all watch and guard the women who 
share their hardships. Even the young, unmarried 
men — the bachelor officers, as they are called — 
patterning after their elders, soon fall into a sort of 
fatherly fashion of looking out for the comfort and 
safety of the women they are with, whether old 
or young, pretty or ugly. It often happens that a 
comrade, going on a scout, gives his wife into 
their charge. I think of a hundred kindly deeds 
shown to all of us on the frontier; and I have 
known of acts so delicate that I can hardly refer 
to them with sufficient tact, and wish 1 might 
write with a tuft of thistle-down. In the instance 
of some very young women — with hearts so pure 
and souls so spotless they could not for one 
moment imagine there lived on earth people de- 
praved enough to question all acts, no matter how 
harmless in themselves — I have known a little word 
of caution to be spoken regarding some exuber- 
ance of conduct that arose from the excess of a 
thoughtless, joyous heart. The husband who re- 
turned to his wife could thank the friend who had 
watched over his interests no more deeply than 
the wife who owed her escape from criticism to 
his timely word. And sometimes, when we went 



TR UE FRIENDSHIP. I 7 7 

into the States, or were at a post with strange 
officers, it would not occur to us, gay and thought- 
less as we were, that we must consider that we 
were not among those with whom we had 
"summered and wintered;" and the freedom and 
absolute naturalness of manner that arose from 
our long and intimate relationship in isolated 
posts, ought perhaps to give way to more formal 
conduct. If the women said to the men, " Now we 
are among strangers, do you not think they would 
misunderstand our dancing or driving or walking 
together just as fearlessly as at home ?" that was 
sufficient. The men said, " Sure enough ! It never 
occurred to me. By jove ! I wish we were back 
where a fellow need not be hampered by having 
every act questioned;" and then no one sought 
harder or more carefully so to act that we might 
satisfy the exactions of that censorious group of 
elderly women who sat in hotel parlors, looking 
on and remarking, " We did not do so when we 
were girls," or even some old frump in a gar- 
rison we visited, who, having squeezed dry her 
orange of life, was determined that others should 
get no good out of theirs, if she could insert one 
drop of gall. 

Occasionally the young officers, perhaps too 
timid to venture on a personal suggestion, sent us 
word by roundabout ways, that they did not want 



I 78 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

US to continue to cultivate someone of whom we 
knew nothing, save that he was agreeable. How 
my husband thanked them. He walked the floor 
with his hands behind him, moved so that his 
voice was unsteady, and said his say about what 
he owed to men who would not let a woman they 
valued be even associated with any one who 
might reflect on them. He was a home-lover, and, 
not being with those who daily congregated at the 
sutler's store, the real " gossip-mill" of a garrison, he 
heard but little of what was going on. A man is 
supposed to be the custodian of his own house- 
hold in civil life ; but it must be remembered that 
in our life a husband had often to leave a young 
and inexperienced bride to the care of his com- 
rades, while he went off for months of field duty. 
The grateful tears rise now in my eyes at the rec- 
ollection of men who guarded us from the very 
semblance of evil as if we had been their sisters. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A TEXAS NORTHER— A SCHOOL-GIRl's FIRST IMPRESSION 

OF TEXAS THE ANTS AS OUR THRIVING NEIGHBORS 

GENERAL CUSTER ILL OF BREAK-BONE FEVER 

MEASURING AN ALLIGATOR THE MARCH TO AUSTIN 

CHASING JACK-RABBITS BYRON THE GREYHOUND. 

'Yy E had not been long in our camp at Hemp- 
stead, before the waives of two of the staff 
arrived by way of Galveston. Their tents were 
put on a line with or near ours, and arbors built 
over them. One of these women, Mrs. Greene, had 
been one of my dearest girlhood friends, and every 
pleasure of my happy life was enhanced by the 
presence of this lovely woman. We all went out, 
after the heat of the day, on long- rides about the 
country. Our father Custer was a fine rider, and not 
only sat his horse well, but it was almost impossible 
to unseat him. He grew more wary and watchful 
of his tormenting sons every day. If they halted, 
apparently only to say a casual word or so to their 
paternal, that keen old man spurred his horse to 
one side with the agility of a circus-rider, just in 



179 



1 80 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

time to avoid the flying heels of the horse of his 
offspring in front of him, which had been taught 
to fling his hoofs up when touched just back of 
the saddle. If both boys came together and rode 
one on each side of him, he looked uneasily from 
one to the other, suspicious of this sudden exhibi- 
tion of friendship ; and well he might, for while 
one fixed his attention by some question that pro- 
voked an answer, usually about politics, the other 
gave a quick rap on the back of the horse, and the 
next thing, the father was grasping the pommel to 
keep from being flung forward of the animal as 
he threw up his heels and plunged his head down, 
making the angle of an incline plane. Even when, 
after a concerted plan, one rode up and pulled the 
cape of the elder man's overcoat over his head and 
held it there a moment, while the other gave the 
horse a cut, he sat like a centaur, and no surprise 
unseated or loosened his grip on the reins. They 
knew his horsemanship well, as he had ridden af- 
ter the hounds in Maryland and Virginia in his 
younger days, and had taught them to sit a horse 
bareback, when their little fat legs were too short 
to describe a curve on the animal's side. Of course 
I was always begging to have them spare father, 
but it was needless championship. He enjoyed 
their pranks with all his fun-loving soul. 

It was very hard to get postage, and he was un- 



• A COON HUNT. l8l 

wary enough one day — on account of the color 
being the same as the issue of that year — to buy 
a dollar's worth of his eldest scion, only to find 
them old ones, such as were used before the war. 
Whether he considered the joke worth a dollar, I 
could not decipher, for he was silent ; but soon 
afterward he showed me an envelope marked in 
the writing of his son Armstrong, " Conscience- 
money," containing the $i unlawfully obtained. 

We were invited one night to go to a coon-hunt, 
conducted in the real old Southern style. The 
officers wanted us to see some hunting, but were 
obliged to leave us behind hitherto when they 
crossed the Brazos River on deer-hunts, and were 
the guests of the planters in the chase, that began 
before dawn and lasted all day. We had thickets, 
underbrush and ditches to encounter, before the 
dogs treed the coon ; then a little darkey, brought 
along for the climbing, went up into the branches 
and dislodged the game, which fell among our and 
the neighbors' dogs. No voice excited them more 
wildly than the " Whoop-la ! " of our old father, 
and when we came home at 2 a. m., carrying a 
coon and a possum, he was as fresh as the young- 
est of us. 

The citizens surrounding us were so relieved to 
find that our troops left them unmolested, they 
frankly contrasted the disciplined conduct with the 



1 82 TENTING ON TlJE PLAINS. 

lawlessness to which they had been witness, in 
States where the Confederate army was stationed. 
But they scarcely realized that an army in time of 
peace is much more restricted. They could 
hardly say enough about the order that was car- 
ried out, preventing the negroes from joining the 
column as it marched into Texas. There was no 
way of taking care of them, and the General di- 
rected that none should follow, so they went back, 
contented to work where they would be fed and 
clothed. 

One reason that our life seemed to me the very 
perfection of all that is ever attained on earth 
was, that the rumors of trouble with Mexico had 
ceased. The demands of our Government had 
been complied with ; but it was thought best to 
keep the troops in the field the rest of the year, 
though there was to be no war. 

Our first experience with a Texas norther sur- 
prised and startled us. It came on in the 
night, preceded by the usual heavy, suffocating 
air which renders breathing an effort. After this 
prelude, the wild blast of wind swept down on us 
with a fury indescribable. We heard the roar 
as it approached over the stretch of prairie be- 
tween us and the sea. Our tent, though it was 
guyed by ropes stretched from the ridge-pole to a 
strong post driven far into the ground, both in 



UR FIRST ' ' NOR TIIERr 1 8 3 

front and at the rear, shook, rattled, and flapped 
as if with the rage of some human creature. It 
was twisted and wrenched from side to side ; the 
arbor overhead seemed to toss to and fro, and the 
wagon rocked in a crazy effort to spill us out. 
Though the ropes stretched and cracked like 
cordage at sea, and the canvas flapped like loosen- 
ed sails, we did not go down. Indeed, rocked in 
this improvised " cradle of the deep," it was hard 
to tell whether one was at sea or on land. I begged 
to get up and dress for the final collapse that I was 
sure was coming, but my husband quieted me and 
calmed my fears, believing that the approaching 
rain would still the wind, as it eventually did. 
Next morning a scene of havoc was visible. Our 
neighbors crept out of their tents, and we women, 
in a little whispered aside, exchanged our opinions 
upon the climate of the "Sunny South." 

They, also, had passed a night of terror, but 
fortunately their tents did not go down. Mrs. 
Lyon had just come from the North, and expected 
to join her husband; meanwhile she was our guest, 
and the General and I had endeavored to give her 
as cordial a welcome as we could, feeling that all 
must be so strange to her after the security and 
seclusion of her girlhood's home. The night pre- 
ceding the norther we took her to her tent near 
ours, and helped her arrange for the night, assur- 



1 84 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ing her that we were so near that we could hear 
her voice, if she was in the least afraid. We, being 
novices in the experience of that climate and its 
gales, had no idea the wind would rise to such 
concert pitch that no voice could be distinguished. 
She said that when we fastened her in from the 
outside world with two straps, she felt very uncer- 
tain about her courage holding out. We kept 
on assuring her not to be afraid, but on bid- 
ding her good-night and saying again not to be 
in the least disturbed, that the sentinel walked his 
beat in front of her tent all night, she dared not 
own up that this assurance did not tend to soothe 
her anxious fears, for she thought she would be 
more afraid of the guard than of anything else. 
And as I think of it, such a good-night from us was 
rather unsatisfactory. My husband, soldier-like, 
put the utmost faith in the guard, and I, though 
only so short a tim.e before mortally afraid of the 
stern, unswerving warrior myself, had soon for- 
gotten that there were many timid women in the 
world who knew nothing of sleepmg without locks 
or bolts, and thought, perhaps, that at the slightest 
ignorance or dereliction of duty the sentinel would 
fire on an offender, whether man or woman. 
Added to this fear of the sentinel, the storm took 
what remnant of nerve she had left; and though she 
laughed next morning about her initiation into the 



WRECJ^S FROM THE HURRICANE. 1S5 

service of the Government, there were subsequent 
confessions to the horror of that unending night. 
In talking with Major and Mrs. Lyon nowadays, 
when it is my privilege to see them, there seem to 
be no memories but pleasant ones of our Texas 
life. They might well cherish two reminiscences 
as somewhat disturbing, for Mrs. Lyon's reception 
by the hurricane, and the Major's baptism of gore 
when he killed his first deer, were not scenes that 
would bear frequent repetition and only leave 
pleasant memories. 

The staff-officers had caused a long shade to be 
built, instead of shorter ones, which would have 
stood the storms better. Under this all of their 
tents were pitched in two rows facing each other ; 
and protected by this arbor, they daily took the 
siesta which is almost compulsory there in the 
heat of the noontide. Now the shade was lifted 
off one side and tilted over, and some of the tents 
were also flat. Among them was that of our 
father Custer. He had extricated himself with 
difficulty from under the canvas, and described his 
sensations so quaintly that his woes were greeted 
with roars of laughter from us all. After nar- 
rating the downfall of his " rag house," he dryly 
remarked that it would seem, owing to the cli- 
mate and other causes, he was not going to have 
much uninterrupted sleep, and, looking slyly at 



1 86 TENrlNG ON THE PLAINS. 

the staff, he added that his neighborhood was not 
the quietest he had ever known. 

The letters home at that time, in spite of their 
description of trivial events, and the exuberant 
underlined expressions of girlish pleasure over 
nothings, my father enjoyed and preserved. I 
find that our idle Sundays were almost blanks in 
life, as we had no service and the hunting and 
riding were suspended. I marked the day by 
writing home, and a few extracts will perhaps pre- 
sent a clearer idea of the life there than anything 
that could be written now : 

"Every Sunday I wake up with the thought of 
home, and wish that we might be there and go to 
church with you. I can imagine how pleasant 
home is now. Among other luxuries, I see with 
my ' mind's eye ' a large plate of your nice apples 
on the dining-room table. I miss apples here ; 
none grow in this country ; and a man living near 
here told our Henry that he hadn't seen one for 
five years. Father Custer bought me some small, 
withered-looking ones for fifty cents apiece. It 
seems so strange that in this State, where many 
planters live who are rich enough to build a 
church individually, there is such a scarcity of 
churches. Why, at the North, the first knowledge 
one has of the proximity of a village is by seeing 
a spire, and a church is almost the first building 



• SCaoOL-GIRL LETTERS. 187 

put Up when a town is laid out. Here in this 
country it is the last to be thought of. Cotton is 
indeed king. The cake you sent to me by Nettie 
Green, dear mother, was a perfect godsend. Oh, 
anything you make does taste so good ! 

" Our orderly has perfected a trade for a beau- 
tiful little horse for me, so that when Custis Lee's 
corns trouble him, I am not obliged to take the 
choice of staying at home or riding one of Arm- 
strong's prancers. The new horse has cunning 
tricks, getting down on his knees to let me get on 
and off, if I tell him to do so. He is very affec- 
tionate, and he racks a mile inside of three min- 
utes. We talk ' horse ' a great deal here, dear 
father, and my letters may be like our talk ; but 
any man who has kept in his stable, for months 
at a time, a famous race-horse worth $9,000, as 
you have kept Don Juan,* ought not to object to 
a little account of other people's animals. We 
had an offer of $500 for Custis Lee at Alex- 
andria." 

" I sometimes have uninvited guests in my tent. 
Friday, Nettie saw something on the tray that 
Eliza was carrying. It had a long tail, and proved 

*Don Juan was a horse captured by our soldiers during the war, 
and bought, as was the custom, by the General, for the appraised 
value of a contract horse. It was the horse that ran away with 
him at the grand review, and it afterward died in Michigan. 



l8S TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to be a stinging scorpion. The citizens pooh-pooh 
at our fear of scorpions, and insist that they are 
not so very dangerous ; but 1 was glad to have 
that particular one killed by Armstrong planting 
his gun on it. I feel much pleased, and Armstrong 
is quite proud, that I made myself a riding-habit. 
You know I lost the waist of mine in the forest. 
It took me weeks to finish it, being my first at- 
tempt. I ripped an old waist, and copied it by 
drawing lines with a pencil, pinning and basting ; 
but it fits very well. I remember how you both 
wanted me to learn when I was at home, and I al- 
most wished I had, when I found it took me such 
ages to do what ought to have been short work. 

"Our letters take twenty days in coming, and 
longer if there are storms in the Gulf. The papers 
are stale enough, but Armstrong goes through 
them all. I feel so rich, and am luxuriating in 
four splint-bottom chairs that we hired an old 
darkey to make for us. I want to sit in all four 
at once, it seems so good to get anything in which 
to rest that has a back. 

" Our dogs give us such pleasure, though it 
took me some time to get used to the din they set 
up when Armstrong practiced on the horn. They 
call it ' giving tongue ' here, but I call that too 
mild a word. Their whole bodies seem hollow, 
they bring forth such wild cries and cavernous 



A LAWLESS LAND. 1 89 

howls. We call them Byron, Brandy, Jupiter, 
Rattler, Sultan and Tyler." 

" Something awful is constantly occurring- 
among the citizens. It is a lawless country. A 
relative of one of our old army officers, a promi- 
nent planter living near here, v/as shot dead in 
Houston by a man bearing an old grudge against 
him. It is a common occurrence to shoot down 
men here for any offense whatever. Armstrong 
never goes anywhere except for hunting, and as 
we have plenty of books and our evening rides, 
we enjoy life thoroughly. Nettie fell from her 
horse, and we were frightened for a time, but she 
was only lamed. Though she weighs 165 pounds, 
Autie * picked her up as if she were a baby, and 
carried her into their tent." 

" Besides visiting at the house of the collector 
of the port, where there is a houseful of young 
girls, we have been hospitably treated by some 
people to whom Armstrong was able to be of use. 
One day, a gentle, well-bred Southern woman 
came into our tent to see Armstrong, and asked 
his protection for her boy, telling him that for 



* An abbreviation of the General's second name, Armstrong, given 
him by his elder sister's children, when they were too young to 
pronounce the full name Armstrong. 



I go 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



some childish carelessness the neighboringr colored 
people had threatened his life. Armstrong be- 
lieved her, and melted. He afterward inquired 
elsewhere into the matter, and was convinced that 
the boy had not intentionally erred. The child 
himself was proof, by his frank manner and his 
straightforward story, of his innocence. 

" I suppose we were the first Yankees these 
people had ever known, and doubtless nothing 
but gratitude induced them even to speak with 
us ; yet they conquered prejudice, and asked us 
to dinner. They had been so well dressed when 
they called — and were accounted rich, I believe, by 
the neighbors — that I could scarcely believe we 
had reached the right house when we halted. It 
was like the cabins of the " poor white trash " in 
the forest, only larger. I thought we had mis- 
taken the negro quarters for the master's. Two 
large rooms, with extensions at the rear, were 
divided by an open space roofed over, under 
which the table was spread. The house was of 
rough logs, and unpainted. Unless the Texans 
built with home materials, their houses cost as 
much as palaces abroad, for the dressed lumber 
had to be hauled from the seacoast. 

" The inside of this queer home was in marked 
contrast with the exterior. The furniture was 
modern and handsome, and the piano, on which 



A GENEROUS NEIGHBOR. igl 

the accomplished mother, as well as her little son, 
gave us music, was from one of our best Northern 
manufactories. The china, glass and linen on the 
dinner-table were still another surprise. 

"They never broached politics, gave us an ex- 
cellent dinner, and got on Armstrong's blind side 
forever, by giving him a valuable full-blooded 
pointer, called Ginnie, short for Virginia. With 
four game chickens, a Virginia cured ham (as that 
was their former State), and two turkeys, we were 
sent on our way rejoicing." 

• • • • • . • . , 

" Our Henry has gone home, and we miss him, 
for he is fidelity itself. He expects to move 
his entire family of negroes from Virginia to 
Monroe, because he says, father, you are the 
finest man he ever did see. Prepare, then, for the 
dark cloud that is moving toward you, and you 
may have the privilege of contributing to their 
support for a time, if he follows Eliza's plan of 
billeting the orphan upon us. 

"We have a new cook called Uncle Charley, 
who has heretofore been a preacher, but now con- 
descends to get up good dinners for us. We had 
eleven to dine to-day, and borrowed dishes of our 
Southern neighbors. We had a soup made out of 
an immense turtle that Armstrong killed in the 
stream yesterday. Then followed turkeys, boiled 



192 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



ham — and roast beef, of course, for Armstrong 
thinks no dinner quite perfect without his beef. 
We are Hving well, and on so little. Armstrong's 
pay as a major-general will soon cease, and we are 
trying now to get accustomed to living on less. 

" I listen to the citizens talking over the pros- 
pects of this State, and I think it promises 
wonders. There are chances for money-making 
all the time thrown in Armstrong's way ; but he 
seems to think that while he is on duty he had 
better not enter into business schemes. 

" Armstrong has such good success in hunting 
and fishing that he sends to the other officers' 
messes, turtle, deer, duck, quail, squirrels, doves 
and prairie chickens. The possums are accepted 
with many a scrape and flourish by the ' nigs.' I 
forgot to tell you that our nine dogs sleep round 
our wagon at night, quarreling, growling, snor- 
ing, but I sleep too soundly to be kept awake by 
them." 

The very ants in Texas, though not poisonous, 
were provided with such sharp nippers that they 
made me jump from my chair with a bound, if, 
after going out of sight in the neck or sleeves of 
my dress, they attempted to cut their way out. 
They clipped one's flesh with sharp little cuts that 
were not pleasant, especially when there remained 
a doubt as to whether it might be a scorpion. We 



DESTRUCTIVE ANTS. Iq^ 

had to guard our linen carefully, for they cut it up 
with ugly little slits that were hard to mend. Be- 
sides, we had to be careful, as we were so cut off 
that we could not well replace our few clothes, 
and it costs a ruinous sum to send North, or even 
to New Orleans, for anything. I found this out 
when the General paid an express bill on a gown 
from New York — ordered before we left the East — 
far larger than the cost of the material and the 
dressmaker's bill together. The ants besieged the 
cook-tent and set Uncle Charley and Eliza to growl- 
ing ; but an old settler told them to surround the 
place with tan-bark, and they were thus freed. It 
was all I could do to keep the General from digging 
down into the ant-mounds, as he was anxious to 
see into their mechanism. The colored people 
and citizens told us what fighters they were, and 
what injuries they inflicted on people who molested 
them. We watched them curiously day by day, 
and wanted to see if the residents had told us 
stories about their stripping the trees of foliage 
just to guy us. It has long been the favorite 
pastime of old residents to impose all sorts of im- 
probable tales on the new-comer. Whether this 
occurrence happens often or not I cannot say, but 
it certainly took place once while we were there. 
One morning my husband ran into the tent and 
asked me to hurry up with my dressing ; he had 



194 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



something strange to show me, and helped me 
scramble into my clothes. 

The carriage-road in front of our tents cut rather 
deep ruts, over which the ants found a difficult 
passage, so they had laid a causeway of bits of 
cut leaves, over which they journeyed between a 
tree and their ant-hills, not far from our tents on 
the other side of the road. They were still travel- 
ing back and forth, each bearing a bit of leaf 
bigger than itself ; and a half-grown tree near us, 
which had been full of foliage the day before, was 
entirely bare. 

For some reason unexplainable, malarial fever 
broke out among our staff. It was, I suppose, the 
acclimation to which we were being subjected. 
My father Custer was ill, and came forth from 
his siege whitened out, while the officers disap- 
peared to mourn over the number of their bones 
for a few days, and then crept out of the tents as 
soon as they could move. My husband all this 
time had never even changed color. His powers 
of endurance amazed me. He seemed to have set 
his strong will against yielding to climatic in- 
fluences ; but after two days of this fighting he 
gave in and tossed himself on our borrowed 
lounge, a vanquished man. He was very sick. 
Break-bone fever had waited to do its worst with its 
last victim. Everything looked very gloomy to 



A FEVER.RACKED PATIENT. 



195 



me. We had not even a wide bed, on which it is 
a little comfort if a fever-tossed patient can fling- 
himself from side to side. We had no ice, no fruit, 
indeed, nothing but quinine. The supplies of that 
drug to the hospital department of Texas must be 
sent by the barrel, it seemed to me, from the 
manner in which it was consumed. 

Our devoted surgeon came, of his own accord, 
over and over again, and was untiring in his 
patience in commg when I sent for him in-between- 
times, to please me in my anxiety. My husband 
was so racked and tormented by pain, and burnt 
up with fiery heat, that he hardly made the 
feeblest fight about the medicine, after having at- 
tained the satisfaction of my tasting it, to be sure 
that I knew how bitter it was. As the fever 
abated every hour, I resorted to new modes of 
bribery and corruption to get him to swallow the 
huge pill. My step-mother's cake had come in the 
very best time, for I extracted the raisins and hid 
the quinine in them, as my father had done 
when giving me medicine as a child. It 
seemed to me an interminable time before 
the disease began to yield to the remedies. 
In reality, it was not long, as the General 
was unaccustomed to medicine, and its effect 
was more quickly realized on that account. Even 
when my husband began to crawl about again. 



196 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



the doctor continued the medicine, and I as nurse 
remorselessly carried out his directions, though I 
had by no means a tractable patient, as with re- 
turning health came restored combative powers. 
My husband noticed the rapid disappearance of 
the pills from the table when he lay and watched 
the hated things with relief, as he discovered that 
he was being aided in the consumption by some 
unknown friend. One morning we found the 
plate on which the doctor had placed thirty the 
night before, empty. Of course I accused the 
General of being the cause of the strange disap- 
pearance, and prepared to send for more, inexora- 
ble in my temporary reign over a weak man. He 
attempted a mild kicking celebration and clapping 
accompaniment over the departure of his hated 
medicine, as much as his rather unsteady feet and 
arms would allow, but stoutly denied having done 
away with the offending pills. The next night 
we kept watch over the fresh supply, and soon 
after dark the ants began their migrations up the 
loose tent-wall on the table-cover that fell against 
the canvas, and while one grasped the flour-mixed 
pill with his long nippers, the partner pushed, 
steered and helped roll the plunder down the side 
of the tent on to the ground. 

The triumph of the citizens was complete. 
Their tales were outdone by our actual experience. 



AN OLD ENEMY. 



197 



After that, there was no story they told us which 
we did not take in immediately without question. 

The hunting included alligators also. In the 
stream below us there were occasional deep pools, 
darkened by the overhanging trees. As we 
women walked on the banks, we kept a respect- 
ful distance from the places where the bend in the 
creek widened into a pond, with still water near 
the high banks. In one of these dark pools lived 
an ancient alligator, well known to the neighbors, 
on which they had been unsuccessfully firing for 
years. The darkies kept aloof from his fastness, 
and even Eliza, whose Monday-morning soul 
longed for the running water of the stream, for she 
had struggled with muddy water so long, trem- 
bled at the tales of this monster. She reminds 
me now " what a lovely place to wash that Gros 
w^ash-house was, down by the creek. But it was 
near the old alligator's pool, and I know I hurried 
up my wash awfully, for I was afraid he might 
come up ; for you know. Miss Libbie, it was 
reckoned that they was mighty fond of children 
and colored people." 

One of the young officers was determined to 
get this veteran, and day after day went up 
and down the creek, coming home at night to 
meet the jeers of the others, who did not believe 
that alligator-hunting in a hot country paid. One 



198 



TEN7ING ON THE PLAINS. 



night he stopped at our lent, radiant and jubilant. 
He had shot the old disturber of the peace, the 
intimidator of the neighborhood, and was going 
for help to haul him up to the tents. He was a 
monster, and it cost the men tough pulling to get 
him up the bank, and then to drag him down near 
our tent. There he was left for us women to see. 
We walked around and around him, very brave, 
and quite relieved to think that we were rid of so 
dangerous a neighbor, with a real old Jonah-and- 
the-whale mouth. The General congratulated the 
young officer heartily, and wished it had been his 
successful shot that had ended him. Part of the 
jaw had been shot away, evidently years ago, as 
it was then calloused over. It was distended to 
its utmost capacity, and propped open with a 
stick. Nettie brought out a broom from her tent, 
with which to get a rough estimate of his length, 
as we knew well that if we did not give some 
idea of his size in our letters home, they would 
think the climate, which enervates so quickly, had 
produced a total collapse in our power to tell the 
truth. The broom did not begin to answer, so we 
pieced out the measure with something else, in 
order to arrive at some kind of accuracy. Then 
we thouofht we would like to see how the beast 
looked with his mouth closed, and the officers, 
patient in humoring our whims, pulled out the 



200 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

props. There was a sudden commotion. The 
next thing visible was three sets of flying- petti- 
coats making for the tent, as the alUgator, revived 
by the sudden let-down of his upper jaw, sprawled 
out his feet and began to walk off over the grass. 
The crack of the rifle a moment after brought out 
the heads of three cowards from their tents, but 
after that no woman hovered over even his dead 
hide. The General was convulsed over our re- 
treat. The drying skin of his majesty, the lord 
of the pool, flung and flapped in the wind, sus- 
pended to the pole of the officers' arbor for weeks,, 
and it was well tanned by the air long before they 
ceased to make sly allusions to women's curi- 
osity. 

At last, in November, the sealed proposals from 
citizens to the quartermaster for the contract for 
transporting the camp equipage and baggage, for- 
age, etc., over the country, were all in, and the 
most reasonable of the propositions was accepted. 
Orders had come to move on to Austin, the capi- 
tal, where we were to winter. It was with real 
regret that I saw our traps packed, the tents of 
our pretty encampment taken down, the arbors 
thrown over, and our faces turned toward the in- 
terior of the State. The General, too buoyant not 
to think that every move would better us, felt 
nothing but pleasure to be on the march again. 



MARCHING TO AUSTIN. 20I 

The journey was very pleasant through the day, 
and we were not compelled to rise before dawn, 
for the sun was by no means unbearable, as it had 
been in August. It was cold at night, and the 
wind blew around the wagon, flapping the curtains, 
under which it penetrated, and lifting the covers 
unless they were strongly secured. As to trying 
to keep warm by a camp-fire in November, I rather 
incline to the belief that it is impossible. Instead 
of heat coming into the tent where I put on my 
habit with benumbed fingers, the wind blew the 
smoke in. Sometimes the mornings were so cold 
I begged to be left in bed, and argued that the 
mules could be attached and I could go straight 
on to camp, warm all the way. But my husband 
woke my drowsy pride by saying " the officers 
will surely think you a ' feather-bed soldier,' " which 
term of derision was applied to a man who sought 
soft places for duty and avoided hardships, driv- 
ing when he ought to ride. 

If we all huddled around one of my husband's 
splendid camp-fires, I came in for the smoke. The 
officers' pretty little gallantries about " smoke al- 
ways following beauty," did not keep my eyes 
from being blistered and blinded. It was, after 
all, not a very great hardship, as during the day 
we had the royal sun of that Southern winter. 

My husband rode on in advance every day to 



202 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

select a camp. He gave the choice into my hands 
sometimes, but it was hard to keep wood, water 
and suitable ground uppermost; I wanted always 
the sheltered, pretty spots. We enjoyed every 
mile of our march. It rained sometimes, pouring 
down so suddenly that a retreat to the traveling 
wagons was impossible. One day I was wet to 
the skin three times, and my husband wondered 
what the anxious father and mother, who used 
frantically to call " rubbers " after me, as a girl, 
when I tried to slip out unnoticed, would say to 
him then ; but it did not hurt me in the least. 
The General actually seemed unconscious of the 
shower. He wore a soldier's overcoat, pulled his 
broad hat down to shed the rain, and encouraged 
me by saying I was getting to be a tough 
veteran, which among us was very high praise. 
Indeed, we were all then so well, we snapped our 
fingers at the once-dreaded break-bone fever. If 
we broke the ice in the bucket for our early ablu- 
tions, it became a matter to joke over when the 
sun was up and we all rode together, laughing and 
joking, at the head of the column. 

Our march was usually twenty-five miles, some- 
times thirty, in a day. The General and I foraged 
at the farms we passed, and bought good butter, 
eggs and poultry. He began to collect turkeys 
for the winter, until we had enough for a year. 



THE SACERDOTAL COOK. 203 

Uncle Charley was doing his best to awe Eliza 
with his numerous new dishes. Though he was a 
preacher, he put on that profession on Sundays as 
he did his best coat ; and if during the week the 
fire smoked, or a dog stole some prepared dish 
that was standing one side to cool, he expressed 
himself in tones not loud but deep, and had as ex- 
tensive a collection of negro oaths as Texas afford- 
ed, which, I believe, is saying a good deal. My 
husband, observant as he always was, wondered 
what possessed the old fellow when preparing 
poultry for dinner. We used slyly to watch him 
go one side, seize the chicken, and, while swift- 
ly wringing its neck, mumble some unintelligible 
words to himself, then throw down the fowl 
in a matter-of-fact way, and sit down to pluck it. 
We were mystified, and had to get Eliza to explain 
this peculiar proceeding that went on day after 
day. She said that " though Uncle Charley does 
swear so powerful, he has a kind of superstition 
that poultry has a hereafter." Evidently he 
thought it was not right to send them to their last 
home without what he intended for a funeral 
oration. Sometimes he said, as fast as his nimble 
old tongue could clatter : 

Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound, 
Mine ears attend the cry I 

Ye living hens, come view the ground 
Where you must shortly die. 



204 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Once after this my husband, by hiding, con- 
trived to be present, though unseen, at one of these 
funeral ceremonies : 

Princes, this clay must be your bed, 

In spite of all your towers, 
The tall, the wise, the reverend head. 

Must lie as low as yours. 

He so timed his verses that w^ith one wrench he 
gave the final turn to the poor chicken's head as 
he jerked out the last line. My husband, per- 
fectly convulsed himself, was in terror for fear 
Uncle Charley would have his feelings hurt by 
seeing us, and hearing my giggling, and I nearly 
smothered myself in the attempt to get back to 
our tent, where the General threw himself down 
with shrieks of laughter. 

We varied our march by many an exciting race 
after jack-rabbits. The chapparral bushes defeated 
us frequently by making such good hiding-places 
for the hare.* If we came to a long stretch of 
open prairie, and a rabbit lifted his doe-like head 
above the grass, the General uttered a wild whoop 
to his dog, a " Come on ! " to me, and off we 
dashed. Some of the staff occasionally joined, 
while our father Custer bent over his old roan 
horse, mildly struck him with a spur, and was in 



* I never liked hunting when the game was killed, and I was 
relieved to find how often the hare rabbit escaped into the thickets. 



THE L ORDL Y B YRON. 2O5 

at the death. The ground was excellent for a run — 
level and grassy. We had a superb greyhound 
called Byron, that was devoted to the General, 
and after a successful chase it was rewarded with 
many a demonstration of affection. He was the 
most lordly dog, I think, I ever saw, powerful, 
with deep chest, and carrying his head in a royal 
way. When he started for a run, with his nostrils 
distended and his delicate ears laid back on his 
noble head, each bound sent him flying through 
the air. He hardly touched the elastic cushions 
of his feet to earth, before he again was spread 
out like a dark, straight thread. This gathering 
and leaping must be seen, to realize how marvel- 
ous is the rapidity and how the motion seems flying, 
almost, as the ground is scorned except at a sort 
of spring bound. He trotted back to the General, 
if he happened to be in advance, with the rabbit 
in his mouth, and, holding back his proud head, 
delivered the game only to his chief. The tribute 
that a woman pays to beauty in any form, I gave 
to Byron, but I never cared much for him. A 
greyhound's heart could be put into a thimble. 
Byron cared for the General as much as his cold 
soul could for any one, but it was not to be com- 
pared with the dear Ginnie : she was all love, she 
was almost human. 

The dog was in an injured state with me much 



2o6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of the time. In quarters he resented all my 
rights. My husband had a great fashion of fling- 
ing himself on the bed, or even on the floor, if it 
was carpeted. He told me he believed he must 
unconsciously have acquired the habit at West 
Point, where the zeal of the cadet seems divided 
between his studies and an effort to keep the 
wrinkles out of the regulation white pantaloons, 
which, being of duck, are easily creased. What 
punishment Government sees fit to inflict for each 
separate crease, I don't know, but certainly its 
embryo soldiers have implanted in them a fear of 
consequences, even regarding rumpled linen. As 
soon as the General tossed himself on the bed, 
Byron walked to him and was invited to share the 
luxury. " Certainly," my husband used to say, sar- 
castically; " walk right up here on this clean white 
spread, without troubling yourself to care whether 
your feet are covered with mud or not. Your 
Aunt Eliza wants you to lie on nice white counter- 
panes ; she washes them on purpose for you." 
Byron answered this invitation by licking his host's 
hand, and turning in the most scornful manner on 
me, as I uttered a mild protest regarding his 
muddy paws. The General quickly remarked that 
I made invidious distinctions, as no spread seemed 
too fine or white for Ginnie, in my mind, while 
if Eliza happened to enter, a pair of blazing eyes 



A JEALOUS DOG. 20/ 

and an energetically expressed opinion of Byron 
ensued, and he retorted by lifting his upper lip over 
some of the whitest fangs I ever saw. The Gen- 
eral, still aiding and abetting, asked the dog to let 
Aunt Eliza see what an intelligent, knowing animal 
he was, how soon he distinguished his friends from 
his foes. Such an exasperating brute, and such a 
tormenting master, were best left alone. But I 
was tired, and wanted to lie down, so I told Eliza 
that if she would stand there, I would try the 
broom, a woman's weapon, on his royal highness. 
Byron wouldn't budge, and growled even at me. 
Then I quite meekly took what little place was 
left, the General's sense of mischief, and his 
peculiar fondness for not interfering in a fight, 
now coming in to keep him silent. The 
dog rolled over, and shammed sleep, but soon 
planting his feet against my back, which was 
turned in high dudgeon, he pushed and pushed, 
seemingly without premeditation, his dreadful 
eyes shut, until I was nearly shoved off. I 
was conquered, and rose afraid of the dog and 
momentarily irritated at my defeat and his 
tyranny, while Eliza read a lesson to the General. 
She said, " Now see what you've done. You keer 
more for that pesky, sassy old hound than you does 
for Miss Libbie. Ginnel, I'd be 'shamed, if I was 
you. What would your mother Custer think of 



208 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

you now ? " But my feelings were not seriously 
hurt, and the General, having watched to the last 
to see how far the brute would carry his jealousy, 
gave him a kick that sent him sprawling on the 
floor, springing up to restore me to my place and 
close the colored harangue that was going on at 
the foot of the bed. Eliza rarely dignified me 
with the honor of being referee in any disputed 
question. She used to say, " No matter whether 
it's right or wrong, Miss Libbie's sho' to side with 
the Ginnel." Her droll way of treating him like a 
big boy away from home for the first time, 
always amused him. She threatened to tell his 
mother, and brought up that sainted woman in all 
our encounters, as she did in the dog episode 
just mentioned, as if the very name would restore 
order at once, and give Eliza her own way in 
regulating us. But dear mother Custer had been 
in the midst of too many happy scuffles, and the 
centre of too many friendly fisticuffs among her 
active, irrepressible boys, in the old farm-days, 
for the mention of her name to restore order in 
our turbulent household. 



CHAPTER VII. 

BYRON AS A THIEF— AN EQUESTRIAN DUDE— MEXICAN 

HORSE-EQUIPAGE AND BLANKETS GENERAL CUSTER 

VISITS A DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM TALES OF 

LAWLESSNESS— PISTOLS EVERYWHERE— ENTERTAIN- 
MENTS AT OUR QUARTERS— ELIZA'S COLORED BALL. 

ONE day we heard shout upon shout from 
many a soldier's throat in camp. The head- 
quarters guard and officers' servants, even the' 
officers themselves, joined in the hallooing, and we 
ran out to see what could be the matter. It was 
our lordly Byron. Stately and superb as he usu- 
ally was, he had another side to his character, and 
now he was racing up from camp, a huge piece of 
meat in his jaws, which he had stolen from the 
camp-kettle where it was boiling for the soldiers' 
dinner. His retreat was accompanied with every 
sort of missile— sticks, boots and rocks— but this 
dog, that made himself into a " greased streak of 
Hghtning," as a colored woman described him, 
bounded on, untouched by the flying hail of the 
soldiers' wrath. The General did not dare to shout 
and dance in siaht of the men, over what he 



2IO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

thought so cunning- in this hateful dog, as he was 
not protected by the friendly walls of our tent ; 
but he chuckled, and his eyes danced, for the brute 
dropped the hot meat when he had looked about 
to discover how close his pursuers were, and then, 
seeing the enemy nearing him, picked it up and 
distanced them all. The General went back to his 
tent, and called Eliza, to torment her with an 
account of what "her favorite" had done all by 
himself. She spared no words to express her opin- 
ion of the hated hound, for Byron was no respecter 
of persons when the sneaky side of his character 
was uppermost. He stole his master's dinner just 
as readily as the neighbors'. Eliza said no one 
could tell how many times he had made off with 
a part of her dinner, just dished up to be served, 
and then gone off on a prowl, "after he'd gorged 
hissel," as she expressed it, " hidin' from the other 
dogs, and burying it in jest such a stingy way you 
might 'spect from such a worthless, plunderin' 
old villain." 

The march to Austin was varied by fording. 
All the streams and rivers were crossed in that 
manner, except one, where we used the ponton 
bridge. The Colorado we found too high to ford, 
and so made a detour of some miles. The citi- 
zens were not unfriendly, while there was a total 
cessation of work on the part of the negroes until 



TEXAS THOROUGHBREDS. 211 

our column went by. They sat on the fences Hke 
a row of black crows,* and with their usual polite- 
ness made an attempt to answer questions the 
troops put to them, which were unanswerable, 
even in the ingenious brain of the propounder. 
"Well, uncle, how far is it ten miles down the 
road from here ?" If their feelings w^ere hurt by 
such irrepressible fun, they were soon healed by 
the lively trade they kept up in chickens, eggs 
and butter. 

The citizens sometimes answered the General's 
salute, and his interested questions about the horse 
they rode, by joining us for a short distance on 
the march. The horse-flesh of Texas was a delight 
to him ; but I could not be so interested in the 
fine points as to forget the disfiguring brands that 
were often upon the fore-shoulder, as well as the 
flank. They spoke volumes for the country where 
a man has to sear a thoroughbred with a hot iron, 
to ensure his keeping possession. Father Custer 
used to say, "What sort of country is this, any- 
how, when a man, in order to keep his property, 
has got to print the whole constitution of the 
United States on his horse?" The whole get up 
of the Texans was rather cumbersome, it seemed 
to me, though they rode perfectly. They fre- 
quently had a Mexican saddle, heavily ornamented 
with silver on the high pommel, and everywhere 



2 I 2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

else that it could be added. Even the design of 
the stamped leather, for which Mexico is famous, 
was embroidered with silver bullion. The stirrup 
had handsome leather covers, while a fringe of 
thongs fell almost to the ground, to aid in pushing 
their way through the tall prairie grass. Some- 
times the saddle-cloth, extending to the crupper, 
w^as of fur. The bridle and bit were rich with 
silver also. On the massive silver pommel hung 
an incongruous coil of horse-hair rope, disfiguring 
and ugly. There was an iron picket-pin attached 
to the lariat, which we soon learned was of ines- 
timable value in the long rides that the Texans 
took. If a man made a halt, he encircled himself 
with this prickly lariat and lay down securely, 
knowing that no snake could cross that barrier. 
In a land of venomous serpents, it behooved a 
man to carry his own abatis everywhere. The 
saddle was also secured by a cinch or girth of cow's- 
hair, which hard riders found a great help in keep- 
ing the saddle firm. The Texan himself,though not 
often wearing the high-crowned, silver-embroid- 
ered Mexican sombrero, wore usually a wide- 
brimmed felt hat, on which the General afterward 
doted, as the felt was of superior quality. If the 
term " dude " had been invented then, it would 
often have applied to a Texan horseman. The hair 
was frequently long, and they wore no waistcoat. 



AN EQUESTRIAN "DUDE:* 2 1 1 

I concluded, because they could better display the 
vast expanse of shirt-front. While the General 
and his casual companion in our march talked 
horse, too absorbed to notice anything else, I 
used to lose myself in the contemplation of the 
maze of tucks, puffs and embroidery of this cam- 
bric finery, ornamented with three old-fashioned 
bosom-pins. The wearer seemed to me to repre- 
sent two epochs : the fine linen, side-saddle and 
blooded horse belonged to " befo' the war ;" while 
the ragged elbows of the coat-sleeves, and the 
worn boots, were decidedly "since the war." If 
the shirt-front was intricate in its workmanship, 
the boots were ignored by the placid owner. 

They usually had the Mexican serape strapped to 
the back of the saddle, or, if it was cold, as it was 
in our late November march, they put their head 
through the opening in the middle, so woven for 
that purpose, and flung the end across their breast 
and over one shoulder in a picturesque manner. 
The bright hues of the blanket, dyed by the 
Indians from the juice of the prickly pear, its soft, 
flexible folds having been woven in a hand-loom, 
made a graceful and attractive bit of color, which 
was not at all out of place in that country. These 
blankets were valuable possessions. They were 
so pliable and perfectly water- proof, that they pro- 
tected one from every storm. We had a pair, 



214 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

which we used through every subsequent cam- 
paign, and when the cold in Kansas and Dakota 
became almost unbearable, sometimes, after the 
the long trial of a journey in the wagon, my 
husband used to say, " We will resort to extreme 
measures, Libbie, and wrap you in the Mexican 
blankets." They were the warmest of all our 
wraps. Nothing seemed to fade them, and even 
when burnt with Tom's cigarette ashes, or stuck 
through with the General's spurs, they did not 
ravel, as do other fabrics. They have hung as por- 
tieres in my little home, and the design and color- 
ing are so like the Persian rug on the floor, that it 
seems to be an argument to prove that Mr. Igna 
tius Donnelly, in his theory of Atlantis, is right, 
and that we once had a land highway between 
the East and Mexico, and that the reason the Aztec 
now uses the designs on his pottery and in his 
weaving is, that his ancestors brought over the 
first sketches on papyrus.^* 



*Ina town of Mexico last year I saw these small looms with 
blankets in them, in various stages of progress, in many cot- 
tages. Among the Indians the rude loom is carried about in the 
mountain villages, and with some tribes there is a superstition 
about finishing the blankets in the same place where they were be- 
gun. A squaw will sometimes have one half done, and if an 
order is given her she will not break over her rule to finish it if a 
move is made in the midst of her work. She waits until the next 
year, when her people return to the same camp, as is the custom 
when the Indian seeks certain game or grazing, or to cut longer 
poles. 



SHIFTLESS STABLING. 2 I 5 

A Texan travels for comfort and safety rather 
than for style. If a norther overtakes him, he 
dismounts and drives the picket-pin into the 
ground, thus tethering his horse, which turns his 
back, the better to withstand the oncoming wind. 
The master throws himself face down in the long 
grass, buried in his blanket, and thus awaits the 
termination of the fury with which the storm 
sweeps a Texas prairie. 

Sometimes one of the planters, after riding a 
distance with us, talking the county over, and 
taking in every point of our horses as he rode, 
made his adieus and said he was now at his own 
place, where he turned in. The General followed 
his fine thoroughbred with longing eyes, and was 
more than astonished to find in what stables they 
kept these valuable and delicate animals. No 
matter if the house was habitable, the stable was 
usually in a state of careless dilapidation. Doors 
swung on one hinge, and clap-boards were torn 
off here and there, while the warped roof was far 
from weather-proof. Even though Texas is in 
the " Sunny South," the first sharp norther 
awakens one to the knowledge that it is not 
always summer. Sometimes these storms are 
quickly over, but frequently they last three days. 
This carelessness about stabling stock was not 
owing to the depredations of an invading army. 



2 i6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

We were the first " Yankees " they had seen. It 
was the general shiftlessness that creeps into one's 
veins. We were not long there ourselves before 
climatic influence had its effect on even the most 
active among us. 

Before we reached Austin, several citizens sent 
out invitations for us to come to their houses ; but 
I knew the General would not accept, and, cold 
as the nights were, I felt unwilling to lose a day 
of camp life. We pitched our tents on rolling 
ground in the vicinity of Austin, where we over- 
looked a pretty town of stuccoed houses that 
appeared summery in the midst of the live-oak's 
perennial green. The State House, Land Office, 
and governor's mansion looked regal to us, so 
long bivouacking in the forest and on uncultivated 
prairies. The governor offered for our head- 
quarters the Blind Asylum, which had been closed 
during the war. This possessed one advantage 
that we were glad to improve: there was room 
enough for all the staff, and a long saloon parlor 
and dining-room for our hops during the winter. 
By this time two pretty, agreeable women, wives 
of staff - officers, were added to our circl-" 
Still, I went into the building with regret, 
wagon in which the wind had rocked me to si 
so often, and which had proved such a stronghc 
against the crawling foes of the country, was coi 



A GAM UNDER A ROOF. 217 

signed to the stable with a sigh. Camp hfe had 
more pleasures than hardships. 

There were three windows in our room, which 
we opened at night ; but, notwithstanding the air 
that circulated, the feeling, after having been so 
long out of doors, was suffocating. The ceiling 
seemed descending to smother us. There was 
one joy: reveille could ring out on the dawning 
day, and there was no longer imperative necessity 
to spring from a warm bed and make ablutions 
in ice-water. There is a good deal of that sort of 
mental snapping of the fingers on the part of 
campaigners when they are again stationary and 
need not prepare for a march. Civilization and a 
looking-glass must now be assumed, as it would 
no longer do to rough it and ignore appearances, 
after we had moved into a house, and were to 
live like " folks." Besides, we soon began to be 
invited by the townspeople to visit them. Re- 
fined, agreeable and well-dressed women came 
to see us, and, woman-like, we ran our eyes over 
their dresses. They were embroidered and trim- 
med richly with lace, " befo' the war " finery or 
from the cargo of a blockade runner ; but it was 
all strange enough in such an isolated State. Al- 
most everything was then brought from the ter- 
minus of the Brenham Railroad to Austin, 150 
miles, by ox-team. We had been anxiously ex- 



2 I 8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

pected for some time, and there was no manner of 
doubt that the arrival of the Division was a great 
reUef to the reputable of both sides. They said 
so frankly — the returned Confederate officers and 
the " stay at-home rangers," as well as the newly 
appointed Union governor. 

Texas was then a " go-as-you-please " State, and 
the lawlessness was terrible. The returned Con- 
federate soldiers were poor, and did not know 
how to set themselves to work, and in many 
instances preferred the life of a freebooter. It 
was so easy, if a crime was committed, to slip 
into Mexico, for though it was inaccessible except 
by stage or on horseback, a Texan would not 
mind a forced march over the country to the Rio 
Grande. There were then but one or two short 
railroads in operation. The one from Galveston 
to Brenham was the principal one, while telegraph 
lines were not in use. The stage to Brenham was 
our one means of communication with the out- 
side world. 

It was hard for the citizens who had remained 
at home to realize that war was over, and some 
were unwilling to believe there ever had been an 
emancipation proclamation. In the northern part 
of the State they were still buying and selling 
slaves. The lives of the newly appointed United 
States officers were threatened daily, and it was 



A PATRIOTIC GIRL. 



219 



an uneasy head that wore the gubernatorial crown. 
I thought them braver men than many who had 
faced the enemy in battle. The unseen, lurking- 
foe that hides under cover of darkness was their 
terror. They held themselves valiantly; but one 
wife and daughter were on my mind night after 
night, as from dark till dawn they slept un- 
easily, and started from their rooms out into 
the halls at every strange sound. The Gen- 
eral and I thought the courageous daughter 
had enough brave, devoted blood in her veins 
to distill a portion into the heart of many a 
soldier who led a forlorn hope. They told us that 
in the early part of the war the girl had known of 
a Union flag in the State House, held in derision 
and scornfully treated by the extremists. She and 
her younger brother climbed upon the roof of a 
wing of the building, after dark, entered a window 
of the Capitol, found the flag, concealed it in the 
girl's clothing, and made their perilous descent 
safely. The father of such a daughter might well 
prize her watchfulness of his safety, as she 
vigilantly kept it up during our stay, and was 
equal to a squadron of soldiers. She won our ad- 
miration; and our bachelor officers paid the tribute 
that brave men always pay to courageous, unsel- 
fish women, for she danced, rode and walked 
with them, and when she was not so engaged. 



2 20 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

their orderlies held their horses before the official 
door, while they improved every hour allowed 
them within the hospitable portal. 

It was a great relief to find a Southern State 
that was not devastated by the war. The homes 
destroyed in Virginia could not fail to move a 
woman's heart, as it was women and children that 
suffered from such destruction. In Texas nothing 
seemed to have been altered. I suppose some 
profited, for blockade-running could be carried on 
from the ports of that great State, and there was 
always Mexico from which to draw supplies. 

In our daily rides we found the country about 
Austin delightful. The roads were smooth 
and the surface rolling. Indeed, there was one 
high hill, called Mount Brunnel, where we had 
picnics and enjoyed the fine view, far and near, 
taking one of the bands of the regular regiments 
from the North that joined us soon after our ar- 
rival. Mount Brunnel was so steep we had to dis- 
mount and climb a part of the distance. The band 
played the "Anvil Chorus," and the sound descend- 
ed through the valley grandly. The river, filled 
with sand-bars and ugly on close examination, 
looked like a silver ribbon. At that height, the 
ripened cotton, at certain seasons of the year, 
looked like fields of foam. The thermometer was 
over eighty before we left the lowlands; but at the 



CHILDREN ' S SIGN LANG UA GE. 2 2 I 

altitude to which we climbed the air was cool. We 
even went once to the State Insane Asylum, taking 
the band, when the attendants asked if dancing- 
music might be played, and we watched with 
wonder the quadrille of an insane eight. 

The favorite ride for my husband was across 
the Colorado, to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. 
There seemed to be a fascination for him in the 
children, who were equally charmed with the 
young soldier that silently watched their pretty, 
pathetic exhibitions of intelligent speech by 
gesture. My husband riveted his gaze on their 
speaking eyes, and as their instructor spelt the 
passions of love, hatred, remorse and reverence 
on his fingers, one little girl represented them by 
singularly graceful gestures, charming him, and 
filling his eyes with tears, which he did not seek 
to hide. The pupils were from ten to sixteen 
years of age. Their supple wrists were a 
delight to us, and the tiny hands of a child of the 
matron, whom the General held, talked in a 
cunning way to its playmates, who, it knew, 
could not comprehend its speech. It was well 
that the Professor was hospitality itself, and did 
not mind a cavalcade dashing up the road to his 
house. My husband, when he did not openly 
suggest going, used some subterfuge as trivial as 
going for water-cress, that grew in a pond near 



222 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the Asylum. The children knew him, and wel- 
comed him with lustrous, eloquent eyes, and went 
untiringly through their little exhibitions, learn- 
ing to bring him their compositions, examples 
and maps, for his commendation. How little we 
thought then that the lessons he was taking, 
in order to talk with the children he learned 
to love, would soon come into use while sitting 
round a camp-fire and making himself understood 
by Indians. Of course, their sign-language is 
wholly their own, but it is the same method of 
using the simplest signs as expressive of thought. 
It was a long, pleasant ride; its only drawback to 
me being the fording of the river, which had 
quicksands and a rapid current. The Colorado 
was low, but the river-bed was wide and filled 
with sand-bars. The mad torrent that the citizens 
told us of in freshets, we did not see. If I fol- 
lowed my husband, as Custis Lee had learned to 
do, I found myself guided safely, but it some- 
times happened that our party entered the river, 
laughing and talking so earnestly, noisily and 
excitedly that we forgot caution. One lesson was 
enough ; the sensation of the sinking of the 
horse's hind legs in quicksands is not to be for- 
gotten. The loud cry of the General to '* saw on 
the bit" or whip my horse, excited, frightened 
directions from the staff to turn to the right or the 



PISTOLS AND BOWIE-KNIVES. 223 

left, Custis Lee trembling and snorting with fear, 
but responding to a cruel cut of my whip (for I 
rarely struck him), and we plunged on to a firmer 
soil, wiser for all the future on account of that 
moment of serious peril. 

We seldom rode through the town, as my hus- 
band disliked the publicity that a group of 
cavalrymen must necessarily cause in a city street. 
If we were compelled to, the staff and Tom 
pointed out one after another of the loungers 
about the stores, or the horseman who had killed 
his man. It seemed to be thought the necessary 
thing, to establish the Texan's idea of courage, to 
have either fought in duels, or, by waylaying the 
enemy, to have killed from one to five men. The 
Southern climate seems to keep alive a feud that 
our cold Northern winters freeze out. Bad blood 
was never kept in abeyance ; they had out their 
bursts of temper when the attack of rage came on. 
Each man, even the boys of twelve, went armed. 
I used to wonder at the humped-up coats until a 
norther, before which we were one day scudding 
for safety, lifted the coats of men making a 
similar dash, and the pistol was revealed. 

It was the favorite pastime of our men (having 
concocted the scheme with the General) to ride 
near some of the outskirts, and, when we reached 
some lone tree, tell me that from that limb a mur- 



2 24 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

dered man had lately swung-. This grim joke was 
often practiced on me, in order that the shuddering 
horror and the start Custis Lee and I made, to 
skim over the country away from such a hated 
spot, might be enjoyed. I came to think the 
Texas trees bore that human fruit a little too often 
for truth ; but some of the citizens gloated over 
these scenes of horror, and added a lamp-post in 
town to the list of localities from which, in future, 
I must turn away my head. 

The negroes of Texas and Louisiana were the 
worst in all the South. The border States had 
commonly sold their most insubordinate slaves in- 
to these two distant States."^ Fortunately, our now 
well-disciplined Division and the regular cavalry 
kept everything in a better condition ; but there 
were constantly individual cases of outrageous con- 
duct, and often of crime, among whites and blacks. 



*ln order to gain some idea of the immense territory in which our 
troops were attempting to restore order, I have only to remind the 
reader that Texas is larger than either the German or the Austrian 
Empire. The area of the State is 274,356 square miles. It is as 
large as France, Belgium, England and Wales all combined. If we 
could place the northwestern corner of Texas at Chicago, its most 
southerly point would be at Jacksonville, Fla., its most easterly 
at Petersburg, Va., and its most westerly in the interior of Missouri. 
It would thus cover the entire States of Indiana, Kentucky and the 
two Carolinas, and nearly all of Tennessee, with one-third of Ohio, 
two-thirds of Virginia, half of Georgia, and portions of Florida. Ala 
bama, Illinois and Missouri. The cities of Chicago, Toledo, Cin- 
cinnati, Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta and Nashville 
would all be included within its borders. 



HOME OF THE DESPERADO. 225 

high and low. Texas had so long been looked upon 
as a sort of " city of refuge " by outlaws, that those 
whom the other States refused to harbor came to 
that locality. A country reached only by sea from 
the south or by a wagon-train from the north, and 
through which no telegraph lines ran until after 
we came,would certainly offer an admirable hiding- 
place for those who leave their country for their 
country's good. I have read somewhere that Texas 
derived its name from a group of rascals, who, sit- 
ting round a fire on their arrival on the soil that 
was to protect them, composed this couplet : 

" If every other land forsakes us, 
This is the land that freely takes us (Texas)." 

As story after story reached us, I began to think 
the State was well named. There were a great 
many excellent, law-abiding citizens, but not 
enough to leaven the lump at that chaotic period. 
Even the women learned to defend themselves, 
as the war had deprived them of their natural 
protectors, who had gone either in the Northern or 
the Southern army — for Texas had a cavalry regi- 
ment of refugees in our service. One woman, while 
we were there, found a teamster getting into her 
window, and shot him fatally. Fire-arms were so 
constantly about — for the men did not dress with- 
out a pistol in their belts — that women grew ac- 



226 TEN71NG ON THE TLA INS. 

customed to the sight of weapons. There was a 
lady of whom I constantly heard, rich and re- 
fined, but living- out of town on a plantation that 
seemed to be fit only for negroes. She rode fear- 
lessly, and diverted her monotonous life by hunt- 
ing. The planters frequently met her with game 
slung upon her saddle, and once she lassoed and 
brought in a wolf alone. Finally this woman 
came to see me, but curiosity made me hardly 
civil for a few moments, as I was trying to recon- 
cile myself to the knowledge, that the quiet, grace- 
ful woman before me, with rich dress, jewels and 
a French hat, could take her gun and dogs, mount 
a fiery horse, and go hunting alone. We found, 
on returning the visit, that, though they were rich, 
owning blooded horses, a plantation and a mill, 
their domicile was anything but what we at the 
North would call comfortable. It was a long, 
one-storied, log building, consisting of a parlor, 
dining-room, bedroom and two small " no-'count " 
rooms, as the servants said, all opening into one 
another and upon the porch. The first surprise 
on entering was, that the roof did not fit down 
snugly on the side wall. A strip of the blue sky 
was visible on three sides, while the partition of the 
dining-room only came up part way. There 
seemed to be no sort of provision for " Caudle 
lectures." The walls were roughly plastered, but 



WALLS HA VE EARS. 22 7 

this space just under the roof was for ventilation, 
and I fancied they would get enough of it during 
a norther. 

I am reminded of a story that one of the witty 
Southern women told me, after repeating some 
very good comic verses, in which they excel. She 
said the house I described was not uncommon in 
Texas, and that once she was traveling over a por- 
tion of the State, on a journey of great suffering, 
as she was accompanying her husband's remains 
to a family burial-ground. They assisted her 
from her carriage into one of the rooms of a long 
log house, used as a wayside inn, and the landlady 
kindly helped her into bed, as she was prostrated 
with suffering and fatigue. After she left her, 
the landlady seemed to forget that the partition 
did not extend to the rafters, and began question- 
ing her servant as to what was the matter, etc. 
Hearing that the lady had lost her husband, the 
old dame exclaimed, sympathetically, " Poor 
thing ! Poor thing ! I know how it is; I've lost 
three of 'em." 

The General and his staff got a good deal of 
sport out of the manner in which they exagger- 
ated the tales of bloodshed to me, and aroused 
the anger, grief and horror that I could not sup- 
press. I must defend myself from the supposition 
that I may have been chronicling their absurd and 



2 28 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

highly colored tales. All that 1 have written, I 
have either seen or have reliable authority for. 
Their astounding stories, composed among them- 
selves, began with a concocted plan by which one 
casually started a story, the others met it with 
surprise and with an "Is it possible?" and the 
next led up to some improbable narrative of the 
General's — I growing more and more shivery as 
the wicked tormentors advanced. Always rather 
gullible, I suppose, I must confess the torn and 
distracted state of society in Texas made every- 
thing they said seem probable. I don't know how 
long I kept up a fashion of starting and shudder- 
ing over the frequent crack of a rifle or pistol, as 
we rode through the woods about the town. My 
husband and his attendant scamps did all they 
could to confirm my belief that the woods were 
full of assassins, and I rode on after these sharp 
reports, expecting to come upon the lifeless re- 
mains of a murdered man. They all said, with 
well assumed feeling, that Texas was an awful 
country in which to live, where a man's life was 
not safe an hour, and excitedly exclaimed at each 
shot, "There goes some other poor fellow!" I 
have reason to believe it was a serious disappoint- 
ment to the whole confederation of jokers, to have 
me actually see a Mexican driver (a greaser) crack 
his whip over the heads of his oxen, as they 



SOMETHING OF SOCIAL LIFE. 



229 



crawled along in front of us one day when we 
were riding. There is no sound like the snap of 
the lash of a "bull-whacker," as they are called, 
and perhaps brighter women than I am might have 
been taken in by it, and thought it a pistol-shot. 
This ended my taking it as the signal of a death. 
The lawlessness of the State was much dimin- 
ished by the troops scattered through the country. 
General Custer was much occupied in answering 
communications that came from distant parts 
of Texas, describing the demoralized state of the 
country, and asking for troops. These appeals 
were from all sides. It was felt more and more 
that the presence of the troops was absolutely 
necessary, and it was certainly agreeable to us 
that we were not looked upon as invaders. The 
General then had thirteen regiments of infantry 
and as many of cavalry, scattered in every part 
of the State comprised in his district. The regular 
troops arriving, brought their wives and daughters, 
and it was a great addition, as we had constant en- 
tertainments, in which the civilians, so long cut off 
from all gayety, were glad to participate. The 
staff assisted me greatly in my preparations. We 
dressed the long parlors in evergreens, made cano- 
pies of flags, arranged wax-lights in impromptu 
wooden sconces, and with the waxed floor it was 
tempting enough to those who cared for dancing. 



230 TENTWG ON THE PLAIN'S. 

The soldiers soon organized a string band, and a 
sergeant called off the quadrilles. Sometimes my 
husband planned and arranged the suppers alone, 
but usually the staff divided the duty of prepar- 
ing the refreshments. Occasionally we attempted 
a dinner, and, as we wanted to invite our own 
ladies as well as some from the regular regiments, 
the table was a subject of study ; for when twenty 
came, the dishes gave out. The staff dined early, 
so that we could have theirs, and the Southern 
woman who occupied two rooms in the building 
lent everything she had. Uncle Charley, our 
cook, who now had found a colored church in 
which to preach on Sunday, did up all his religion 
on that day, and swore all the week, but the cellar- 
kitchen was distant, and, besides, my husband 
used to argue that it was just as well to endure 
placidly the evils right about us, but not to seek 
for more. The swearing did not interfere with 
the cooking, and Charley thought it necessary to 
thus clear the kitchen, as our yard at that time 
was black with the colored race. Each officer's 
servant had his circle of friends, and they hovered 
round us like a dark cloud. The dishes that 
Uncle Charley sent up were excellent. The Texas 
beef and poultry were of superior quality, and we 
even had a respite from condensed milk, as a 
citizen had lent us a cow. 



CHAGRIN OF A HOSTESS. 23 1 

At one of these dinners Eliza had enhsted a 
colored boy to help her wait on the table. I had 
tried to borrow enough dishes, and thought the 
table was provided. But the glory of the occa- 
sion departed when, after soup, roast game, etc., 
all served with the great luxury at that place of 
separate plates. Uncle Charley bethought himself 
that he would add, as a surprise, a dessert. It is 
almost unnecessary to say that a dessert at that 
time was an event. Uncle Charley said his "best 
holt " was on meats, and his attempts at pastry 
would not only have ruined the remnant of his 
temper, but, I am afraid, if often indulged in, 
would have effectually finished our digestion. 
For this I had not counted, and, to my dismay, 
after the pudding had been deposited with great 
salaam and ceremony before the General, the 
colored boy rushed around and gathered every- 
body's coffee-saucer. Until he returned them 
washed, and placed them at the head of the table, 
I did not imagine what he was doing ; I simply 
waited, in that uncertain frame of mind that a 
hostess well knows. My husband looked at the 
array of cups down the long table, standing bereft 
of their partners, laid his head back, and shouted. 
Then everybody else laughed, and, very red and 
very mortified, I concluded to admit that I had 
not arranged for this last course, and that on that 



23^2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

table were the united contents of all our mess- 
chests, and there were no saucers or dessert-plates 
nearer than town. We were aware that our 
stay in the South was limited, and made no 
effort to keep enough crockery for dinners of 
twenty. 

After many enjoyable parties in our parlor, we 
received a pathetic and carefully worded hint 
from Eliza, who was now a great belle, that she 
would like to return some of the hospitality 
shown her by the colored people of the town, and 
my husband was only too glad to prove to Eliza 
how we valued her faithful, self-denying life in 
our service. We composed an invitation, in which 
Miss Eliza Brown presented her compliments to 
Mr.Washington or Mr. Jefferson, as the case might 
be, and would be happy to see him on such an 
evening, with the word "dancing" in the left- 
hand corner. A gathering of the darkies seemed 
equally jubilant, whether it was a funeral, a camp- 
meeting or a dance ; but it seemed they made a 
difference in dress for these occasions, if not in 
manners. So it was best, Eliza thought, to add 
" dancing," though it was only at first a mirthful 
suggestion of the General's fertile brain. He gave 
the copying to the office clerk, who, being a profes- 
sional penman, put as many tails to his capitals 
and flourishes to his words as he did for the white 



A NEGRO BALL. 21'> 

folks, Eliza's critical eye watching for any less 
elaborate embellishment. 

The lower part of the house was given over to 
the negroes, who polished the floor, trimmed the 
windows, columns and chimney with garlands of 
live-oak, and lavished candles on the scene, while 
at the supper they had a heterogeneous jumble of 
just what they asked for, including coon, the dish 
garnished with watercress and bits of boiled beet. 
I think we were not asked ; but as the fiddle 
started the jigs, the General's feet began to keep 
time, and he executed some pas senl around our 
bedroom, and then, extracting, as usual, a promise 
from me not to laugh, he dragged me down the 
steps, and we hid where we saw it all. The quadrille 
ended, the order of ceremonies seemed to consist 
in the company going down to one end of the room 
in response to an order from Uncle Charley to 
" clar the flo'." Then the old man of sixty, a grand- 
father, now dressed in white tie, vest and gloves, 
with shining black clothes, took the floor. He knew 
himself to be the cynosure of all eyes, and bore 
himself accordingly. He had previously said to 
me, " To-night, I expects, Miss Libbie, to put 
down some steps those colored folks has never 
seen befo'." And surely he did. He ambled out, 
as lithe as a youngster, cut some pigeon-wings, 
and then skipped and flung himself about with 



234 TENTL\G ON THE PLAINS. 

the agility of a boy, stopping" not on?y for breath, 
but to watch the expressions, envious and admir- 
ing, of the spectators at the end of the room. 
When his last breath was exhausted, Aunt Ann, 
our old laundress, came tripping down the polished 
floor, and executed a shuffle, most decorous at 
first, and then, reviving her youth, she struck into 
a hoydenish jig, her son encouraging her by pat- 
ting time. More quadrilles, then another clearing 
of the floor, and a young yellow woman pirouet- 
ted down the room, in bright green tarlatan 
petticoats, very short and airy. She executed a 
hornpipe and a reel, and, like Uncle Charley, im- 
provised some steps for the occasion. This black 
sylph was surrounded with a cloud of diaphanous 
drapery; she wreathed her arms about her head, 
kept on the smirk of the ballet-girl, and coquetted 
and skipped about, with manners that brought 
down the house. The fattest darkey of all wad- 
dled down next and did a break-down, at which 
all the assembly patted juba, and with their 
woolly heads kept time to the violin. My husband 
never moved from his hiding-place, but chuckled 
and shook over the sight, novel to us, till Eliza 
found us out and forgave the " peeking." 

The clothes worn, looked as if the property- 
room of a third-rate theatre had been rifled — faded 
finery, fag ends of old lace, tumbled flowers that 



TOILETS OF THE DANCERS. 



235 



had done duty at many a " white folks'" ball, on 
the pretty costume of the missus, old feathers set 
up in the wool, where what was left of the plume 
bobbed and quavered, as the head of the owner 
moved to the time of the music, or nodded and 
swayed back and forth while conver£^ation went 
on. The braiding, oiling and smoothing had 
gone on for days previous, to straighten the wool 
and make it lie flat ; but the activity in the pur- 
suit of pleasure soon set the little kinks free, and 
each hair stood on tip-toe, joining in a jig of its 
own. The powder begged from the toilet-table 
of the missus was soon swept away in the general 
shine ; but the belles cared little for having sus- 
pended temporarily the breath of their rivals by 
the gorgeousness of their toilets ; they forgot ap- 
pearances and yielded to that absorption of 
excitement in which the colored soul is spell- 
bound. 

Eliza moved about, " queening it " as she knew 
how to do, and it was a proud hour of triumph to 
her, as she cast a complacent side glance at the 
tail of her gown, which she had wheedled out of 
me by cunning arguments, among which the most 
powerful was that " 'twas getting so mussed and 
'twasn't no sort of a dress for a Ginnel's wife, no 
how." The General lost nothing, for he sat in our 
hidden corner, shaking and throwing his head back 



236 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

in glee, but keeping a close and warning hold on 
my arm, as I was not so successful in smothering a 
titter as he was, having no mustache to deaden 
the sound. After Eliza discovered us, she let no 
one know of our perfidy, and the company, be- 
lieving they were alone, abandoned themselves 
to complete enjoyment as the fiddle played havoc 
with the heels of the entire assembly. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LETTERS HOME EXTRACTS CAUGHT BY A NORTHER 

LONGING FOR A YANKEE WOOD-l'ILE COLONEL 

GROOME OF l8l2 JACK RUCKER BEATEN IN A 

HORSE-RACE GINNIE AND HER FAMILY OUR 

FATHER Custer's dog. 

' I "HE trivial events of our daily life were 
chronicled in a weekly letter home, and from 
a number of these school-girl effusions I cull a few 
items, as they give an idea of my husband's recre- 
ations as well as his duties. 

" We are quartered in the Blind Asylum, which 
is large and comfortable. The large rooms in the 
main part of the building we can use for enter- 
taining, while the staff occupy the wings and the 
building in the yard, that was used for a school- 
room. Out there they can have all the ' walk- 
arounds ' and ' high-jinks ' they choose, without 
any one hearing them." 

" Our room is large, and, mother, I have two 
bureaus and a wardrobe, and lose my things con- 



238 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

stantly, I am so unused to so much room. We 
women hardly knew what to make of the absence of 
looking-glasses, as the house is otherwise furnished, 
until it occurred to us that the former occupants 
wouldn't get much good out of a mirror. It isn't 
so necessary to have one, after all, as I got on all 
summer very well, after I learned to brush my 
hair straight back and not try to part it. 1 have 
a mirror now, and am wrestling with back hair 
again. 

" I confess to you, mother, it is a comfort to get 
out of bed on to a carpet, and dress by a fire ; but 
don't tell Armstrong I said so, as I never men- 
tioned to him that dressing before day, my eyes 
streaming with tears from the camp-fire while I 
took an ice-water bath, was not the mode of serv- 
ing my country that I could choose." 

" Last Sunday it was uncomfortably warm. We 
wore thin summer clothes, and were languid from 
the heat. The thermometer was eighty-two in 
the shade. On Monday the weather changed from 
heat to cold in five minutes, in consequence of the 
sudden and violent winds, which are called 
' northers.' " 

" No one prepares for the cold in this country, 
but there was a general scattering when our first 
norther attacked us. Tom rushed for wood, and 



PYROTECHNICS FOR A PARENT. 239 

of course none was cut. He fished Tex out from 
the kitchen, borrowed an axe from one of the 
headquarters men, and soon appeared with an arm- 
ful. As he took the sticks from Tex to build the fire, 
out dropped a scorpion to add to the excitement. 
It was torpid, but nevertheless it was a scorpion, 
and I took up my usual safe position, in the middle 
of the bed, till there was an auto da fe. The 
loose windows rattled, and the wind howled 
around the corner of our room. I put a sack and 
shawl over my summer dress, and we shivered 
over Tom's fire. I rather wondered at Armstrong's 
huddling, he is usually so warm, but each act of 
these boys needs investigating. By and by he 
went off to write, while father Custer took out his 
pipe, to calm the troubled scene into which the 
rush of Nova Zembla had thrown us. He sat 'way 
under the mantel to let the tobacco-smoke go up 
the chimney. Pretty soon Autie returned and 
threw some waste paper on the fire, and the next 
thing we all started violently back from a wild 
pyrotechnic display. With the papers went in a 
handful of blank cartridges, and these innocent 
looking scamps faced their father and calmly 
asked him why he had jumped half-way across 
the room. They often repeat this Fourth-of-July 
exhibition with fire-crackers, either tied to his chair, 
or tossed carelessly on the burning logs, when his 



240 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

attention is attracted elsewhere. But don't pity 
him, mother. No matter what trick they play, he 
is never phased. He matches them too, and I 
help him, though I am obliged to confess I often 
join in the laugh, it is all so funny. This was not 
the last of the hullaballoo. The w^ood gave out, 
and Autie descended for more. Tex took this 
occasion, when everyone was hunting a fire and 
shelter from the cold, to right what he considered 
a grievous wrong. Autie found him belaboring 
another colored boy, whom he had "downed." 
Autie investigated, for if Tex was right he was 
bound to let the fight proceed. You know in his 
West Point days he was arrested for allowing a 
fisticuff to go on, and because he said, ' Stand back, 
boys, and let's have a fair fight.' But finding our 
boy in the wrong, he arraigned him, and began, 
' Did you strike Jake with malice aforethought ? ' 
' No, sah ! no, sah ! I dun struck him with the 
back of the hatchet.' At this Autie found himself 
no longer a 'most righteous judge.' This Daniel 
beat a quick retreat, red with suppressed laughter, 
and made Tom go down to do the punishing. 
Tom shut Tex in the chicken-coop ; but it was too 
hard for me to see from my window his shiny 
eyes looking out from between the slats, so they 
made the sentence light, and he was set free in 
the afternoon. 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 241 

( --■ ^ 

" Now, mother, I have estabUshed the only 
Yankee wood-pile in Texas. I don't mean to be 
caught again, and shrivel up as we did this time. 
You don't know how these storms deceive you. One 
hour we are so suffocated with the heavy, oppres- 
sive air, we sit in the deep window-sills and pant for 
breath. Along comes a roaring sound through the 
tree-tops, and there's a scatter, I can tell you. We 
bang down the windows, and shout for Texas to 
hunt the wood-pile, jump into warm clothes, and 
before we are fairly prepared, the hurricane is 
upon us. We really don't mind it a bit, as it 
doesn't last long (once it lasted three days), 
besides, it is so good to be in something that isn't 
going to blow down, as we momentarily expected 
in a tent. Our Sundays pass so slowly ! The 
traveling-wagon holds a good many, and we don't 
mind close quarters, so we all squeeze in, and the 
bachelor officers ride with us to church. The Epis- 
copal church is still open, but as they have no 
fires we would be glad if the rector warmed 
us up with his eloquence a little more. However, 
it's church, and we begin to feel semi-civilized. 

"The citizens are constantly coming to pay 
their respects to Armstrong. You see, we were 
welcomed instead of dreaded, as, Yankees or no 
Yankees, a man's life is just as good, preserved by 



242 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

a Federal soldier as by a Confederate, and every- 
body seems to be in a terrified state in this law- 
less land. Among- the callers is one man that 
will interest you, father. I believe you are con- 
sidered authority on the history of the fight that 
took place at Monroe, when the Kentucky regi- 
ment fought the British in 1812. Well, whom do 
you think we have found down here, but the old 
Colonel Groome who distinguished himself that 
day ? He is a white-headed old soldier, and when 
Autie told him that we were right from Monroe, 
he was so affected the tears came to his eyes. It 
was he that set the barn on fire, to prevent the 
British using it as a fortification for sharp-shoot- 
ers. He crawled away from the burning building 
on his hands and knees, while their bullets cut his 
clothes and wounded him several times. Years 
afterward he met an old British officer, who told 
him, in their talk, that the man who fired the barn 
was killed by his own army, but Colonel Groome, 
in quite a dramatic way, said, ' No ! I am the 
man.' He says that he would like to see you so 
much. Autie is greatly interested in this veteran, 
and we are going to call on him, and get two 
game chickens he is to give us. 

" Now, father, don't wrinkle up your brows 
when I tell you that we race horses. Even I race 
with Mrs. L , and, much as you may disapprove, 



HARMLESS HORSE-RACING. 243 

I know my father too well, not to be sure he will 
be glad that his only daughter beat. But let me 
explain to you that racing among ourselves is not 
your idea of it. There is no money at stake, no 
rough crowd, none of the evils of which you may 
well disapprove, as we know horse-racing at home. 
Armstrong is considered the best judge of a horse 
here. The Texans supposed no one in the world 
could ride as well as themselves, and they do 
ride splendidly, but those who saw Armstrong 
keep his place in the saddle, when Don Juan ran 
away with him at the grand review in Washing- 
ton, concede that he does know how to ride, 
however mistaken his views on patriotism may 
be. We have now three running horses and a 
fast pony, none of which has been beaten. 
Autie's bay pony beat a crack runner of which 
the town boasts, by three full lengths. The races 
are near our quarters, so we women can be in it 
all. Indeed, there is nothing they do not share 
with us. 

" Our stable-boy is a tiny mulatto, a handsome 
little fellow, weighing about eighty pounds. 
Armstrong thinks he is the finest rider he has ever 
seen. I have just made him a tight-fitting red 
jacket and a red-white-and-blue skull-cap, to ride 
in at races. We are running out to the stables 
half our time. Armstrong has the horses exercised 



244 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

on a quarter-of-a-mile track, holds the watch and 
times them, as we sit round and enjoy their speed." 

" When I am so intent on my amateur dress- 
making, and perplexed and tired, dear mother, 
you wouldn't wonder when I tell you that one 
dress, of which I am in actual need, I cut so that 
the figure ran one way on the skirt and another 
on the waist, and caused Armstrong to make 
some ridiculous remarks that I tried not to notice, 
but he was so funny and the dress itself was so 
very queer when I put it on, I had to give in. 
Well, when I am so bothered, he comes in and 
throws my things all over the room, kicks over 
the lapboard, and picks me up for a tramp to the 
stable. Then he rubs down the horses' legs, and 
asks me to notice this or that fine point, which is 
all Greek to me. The truth is, that I would rather 
see a fine mane and tail, than all the sinew, length 
of limb, etc. Then we sit down on kegs and 
boxes, and contemplate our wealth. Custis Lee 
greets me with a whinny. Dear mother, you 
would be simply horrified by our back yard. 
Autie and I march to the stables through a dark 
cloud of spectators. The negroes are upon us 
like the locusts of Egypt. It is rumored that our 
Uncle Charley keeps a flourishing colored board- 
ing-house in the town, from what is decidedly 



SCHOOLMA TES MEE T AS SOLDIERS. 245 

more than the crumbs that fall from his master's 
table. After all, though, considering our house 
is filled with company, and we constantly give 
evening parties, I don't think our mess-bills are 
very large. Autie teases father Custer, by telling 
him he is going to brigade the colored troops, and 
make him chaplain. You are well aware how 
father Custer feels over the ' nigger ' question, and 
how he would regard a chaplaincy. I must not 
forget to tell you that the wheel of time has rolled 
around, and among the regiments in Armstrong's 
command is the Fourth Michigan Infantry. Don't 
you remember that when he was a second lieuten- 
ant, he crossed the Chickahominy with that regi- 
ment, and how, having started before dawn, his 
comrades among whom he had just come, did not 
know him, till, while they were lying low, he 
would pop up his head and call out their first 
names, or their nick-names at school in Monroe, 
and when it was daylight, and they recognized 
him, how glad they were to see him." 

" We had a lovely Christmas. I fared beauti- 
fully, as some of our staff had been to San Antonio, 
where the stores have a good many beautiful 
things from Mexico. Here, we had little oppor- 
tunity to buy anything, but I managed to get up 
some trifle for each of our circle. We had a large 



246 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Christmas-tree, and Autie was Santa Glaus, and 
handed down the presents, making side-spHtting 
remarks as each person walked up to receive his 
gift. The tree was well lighted. I don't know how 
so many tapers were gotten together. Of course 
it would not be us if, with all the substantial gifts, 
some jokes were not slipped in. You know well 
father Custer's antipathy to the negro, and every- 
body gathered round to see him open a box con- 
taining a nigger doll baby, while two of his other 
parcels held a bunch of fire-crackers and a bunch 
of cards. Lately his sons have spent a good deal 
of time and argument, trying to induce him to 
play. They, at last, taught him some simple game, 
easy enough for even me to master. The rogues 
let him beat at first, but finally he discovered his 
luck was so persistently bad there must be a screw 
loose, and those boys up to some rascality. They 
had put him, with no apparent intention, with his 
back to the mirror, and, of course, saw his hand, 
which, like an amateur, he awkwardly held just 
right to enable them to see all his cards. This 
ended his lessons, and we will return him to Mon- 
roe the same good old Methodist that he left it. 
Everybody is fond of him, and his real presents 
were a hat, handkerchief, necktie, pipe and tobacco. 
" One of our lieutenants, having just received 
his brevet as major, had a huge pair of yellow 



CHRISTMAS MISTLETOE. 247 

leaves cut out of flannel, as his insignia for the new 
rank. 

" One of the staff, now a teetotaler, was remind- 
ed of his past, which I hoped everyone would ig- 
nore, by the present of a wooden faucet. No one 
escapes in such a crowd. 

" Tom, who is always drumming on the piano, 
had a Jew's-harp given him, with an explanatory 
line from Autie attached, " to give the piano a 
rest." Only our own military family were here, 
and Armstrong gave us a nice supper, all of his 
own getting up. We played games, sang songs, 
mostly for the chorus, danced, and finally the 
merriest imitated the darkies by jigs and patting 
juba, and walk-arounds. The rooms were pretti- 
ly trimmed with evergreens, and over one door a 
great branch of mistletoe, about which the officers 

sang : 

Fair mistletoe ! 

Love's opportunity ! 
What trees that grow 

Give such sweet impunity ? 

" But it is too bad that, pretty as two or three of 
our women are, they belong to some one else. So 
kissing begins and ends with every man saluting 
his own wife. 

" I wish you could see the waxen white berries 
and the green leaves of the parasite on the naked 
branches of the trees here, mother ; and, oh ! to 



248 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

have you get one sniff of the December roses, 
which rival the summer ones in richness of color 
and perfume, would make my pleasure greater, I 
assure you. It is nearly spring here, and the grass 
on our lawn is getting green, and the farmers be- 
gan to plough in January. 

" Nettie is such a nurse here ! Her name is up 
for it, and she has even to go out to the servants' 
quarters if the little nigs burn their heels or toes. 
She is a great pleasure to us all, and enjoys every 
moment." 

It seems that the general racing of which I 
wrote to my father, was too tempting for me to re- 
sist entirely, and our household was beguiled one 
day into a promise to bring my husband's war- 
horse. Jack Rucker, down to the citizens' track. 
Every one was confident of success, and no one 
took into consideration that the experiment of 
pitting gentlemen against turf roughs has never 
been successful. Our officers entered into all the 
preparations with high hopes, thinking that with 
one good whipping the civilians would cease to 
send bantering messages or drag presuming coat- 
tails before their eyes. They were accustomed to 
putting their steeds to their best speed when a 
party of equestrians from our headquarters were 
riding in their vicinity. Too fond of good horse- 
flesh not to admire the pace at which their 



OUR HORSE ''JACK.'' 249 

thoroughbreds sped over the smooth, firm roads 
about Austin, there was still a murmured word 
passed around that the owners of these fleet ani- 
mals would hang their proud heads when " Jack " 
came into the field. We women were pressed 
mto going. All of us liked the trial of speed on 
our own territory, but the hatred of a horse-track 
that was not conducted by gentlemen was imbed- 
ded deep in our minds. The officers did not ask 
us to go for good luck, as army women are so 
often told they bring it, but they simply said, 
' You could not miss seeing our Jack beat !' Off 
we went, a gay, boisterous party, till we reached 
the track ; there we put on our quietest civilian 
manners and took our place to watch the coming 
triumph. The track was good, and the Texas men 
and women, more enthusiastic over a horse than 
over anything else in the world, cheered their 
blanketed favorite as he was led up and down 
before the judge's stand. 

When the judge gave the final " Go !" our party 
were so excited, and our hearts so swelling with 
assured success, I would have climbed up on the 
saddle to see better, if it had not been that we 
were surrounded with strangers. Off went the 
beautiful Texas horse, like an arrow from a bow ; 
but our Jack, in spite of the rider sticking the spur 
and cruelly cutting his silken neck with the whip. 



250 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

only lumbered around the first curve, and in this 
manner laboriously made his way the rest of the 
distance. Of course it was plain that we were 
frightfully beaten, and with loud and triumphant 
huzzas, the Texans welcomed their winning horse, 
long before poor Jack dragged himself up to the 
stand. Our officers hurried out to look him over, 
and found the poor brute had been drugged by 
the contesting side. There was no serious injury, 
except to our pride. We were too disappointed, 
humiliated and infuriated to stand upon the order 
of our going. We all turned our backs upon the 
crowd and fled. The clatter of our horses' hoofs 
upon the hard road was the only sound, as none 
of us spoke. 

My husband met that, as everything else, as 
nothing worthy of serious regret, and after the 
tempest of fury over our being so imposed upon, 
I rather rejoiced, because the speed of our horses, 
after that first and last essay, was confined to our 
own precincts. Nobody's pocket suffered, and 
the wounded spirits of those who race horses are 
more easily soothed, if a wounded purse has not 
to be borne in addition. 

There was one member of our family, to whom 
I have only referred, who was our daily joy. It 
was the pointer Ginnie, whom the Virginia family 
in Hempstead had given us. My husband made 



DOGS AS COMPANIONS. 25 I 

her a bed in the hall near our room, and she did 
every cunning, intelligent act of which a dog is 
capable. She used to go hunting, walking and 
riding with us, and was eti rapport with her master 
at all times. I often think, Who among our 
friends pleases us on all occasions? How few 
there are who do not rub us up the wrong way, or 
whom we ourselves are not conscious sometimes 
of bormg, and of taxing their patience ! And do 
we not find that we sometimes approach those of 
whom we are fond, and discover intuitively that 
they are not in sympathy with our mood, and we 
must bide their time for responding to our over- 
tures ? With that dear Ginnie there was no ques- 
tion. She received us exactly in the spirit with 
which we approached her, responded, with 
measure pressed down and running over, to our 
affectionate demonstrations, and the blessed old 
girl never sulked if we dropped her to attend to 
something else. George Eliot says, " Animals are 
such agreeable friends! they ask no questions, 
they pass no criticisms." 

A dog is so human to me, and dogs have been 
my husband's chosen friends so many years, I can- 
not look upon the commonest cur with indifference. 
Sometimes, as I stand now at my window, long- 
ing for the old pack that whined with delight, 
quarreled with jealousy for the best place near us, 



25^ 



7-ENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



capered with excitement as we started off on a 
ride or walk, my eyes involuntarily follow each 
dog that passes on the street. I look at the 
master to see if he realizes that all that is faithful 
and loving" in this world is at his heels. If he 
stops to talk to a friend, and the dog leaps about 
him, licks his hand, rubs against him, and tries, in 
every way that his devoted heart teaches him, to 
attract the attention of the one who is all the 
world to him, all my sympathies are with the dog. 
I watch with jealous solicitude to see if the affec- 
tionate brute gets recognition. And if by instinct 
the master's hand goes out to the dog's head, I am 
quite as glad and grateful as the recipient. If the 
man is absorbed and lets the animal sit patiently 
and adoringly watching his very expression, it 
seems to me I cannot refrain from calling his 
attention to the neglect. 

My husband was as courteous in responding to 
his dogs' demonstrations, and as affectionate, as he 
would be to a person. If he sent them away, he 
explained, in dog talk, the reason, which might 
seem absurd, if our canine family had not been our 
companions so constantly that they seemed to 
understand and accept his excuses as something 
unavoidable on his part. The men of our family 
so appreciated kindness to dogs that I have found 
myself this winter, involuntarily almost, calling to 



ALTERING THE DOG CENSUS. 



25: 



them to see an evidence of affection. One of 
my neighbors is a beer saloon, and though I am 
too busy to look out of the window much, I have 
noticed occasionally an old express horse waiting 
for his master to take "something warming." The 
blanket was humped up on his back mysteriously. 
It turned out to be a dear little cur, which was thus 
kept warm by a fond master. It recalls our men 
and the ways they devised for keeping their dogs 
warm, the times innumerable when they shared 
their own blankets with them, when caught out in 
a cold snap, or divided short rations with the dogs 
they loved. 

Returning to Ginnie, I remember a day when 
there was a strange disappearance ; she did not 
thump her tail on the door for entrance, fetching 
our stockings in her mouth, as a gentle hint that it 
was time to get up and have a fire, if the morning 
was chilly. It did not take the General long to 
scramble into his clothes and go to investigate, for 
he dearly loved her, and missed the morning call. 
Soon afterward he came bounding up the stairs, 
two steps at a time, to announce that no harm had 
come to our favorite, but that seven other little 
Ginnies were now taking the breakfast provided 
by their mother, under the negro quarters at the 
rear of the house. There was great rejoicing, and 
preparations to celebrate this important event in 



2 54 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

our family. Eliza put our room in order, and de- 
scended to the kitchen to tell what antics the 
General was performing over the animal. When 
she was safely down-stairs, where she could not in- 
timidate us, my husband and I departed to fetch 
the new family up near us. The General would 
not trust any one with the responsibility of the 
removal. He crawled under the building, which 
was set up on low piles, and handed out the baby 
canines, one by one, to me. Ginnie ran beside us, 
frantic with anxiety, but her eloquent eyes full of 
love and trust in our intentions. 

Her bed in the hall was hardly good enough for 
such an epoch in her life, so the whole litter, with 
the proud mother in their midst, was safely de- 
posited in the middle of our bed, where we paid 
court to this royalty. My husband went over each 
little shapeless body, and called my special atten- 
tion to fine points, that, for the life of me, dog-lover 
as I was, I could not discover in the pulpy, silken- 
sk inned little rolls. As he took them up, one by one 
Ginnie understood every word of praise he uttered. 
After all of these little blind atoms had been re- 
turned to their maternal, and the General had con- 
gratulated the mother on a restaurant where, he 
said, the advertisement of "warm meals at all 
hours" was for once true, he immediately set 
about tormenting Eliza. Her outraged spirit had 



VIALS OF WRATH. 



255 



suffered often, to see the kingly Byron reposing- 
his head on the pillow, but the General said, " We 
must get her up-stairs, for there will be war in 
the camp now." 

Eliza came peacefully up the stairs into our 
room, but her eyes blazed when she saw Ginnie. 
She asked her usual question, " Did I come way 
off down in this here no 'count country to wash 
white counterpanes for dogs ? " At each speech 
the General said something to Ginnie in reply, to 
harrow her up more and more, and at last she had 
to give in and laugh at some of his drolleries. She 
recalls to me now her recollection. " Miss Libbie, 
do you mind how the Ginnel landed Ginnie and 
her whole brood of pups in the middle of the bed, 
and then had the 'dacity to send for me ? But, 
oh ! it was perfectly heart-rendin', the way he 
would go on about his dogs when they was sick." 

And we both remembered, when one of these lit- 
tle puppies of our beloved Ginnie was ill, how he 
walked the floor half the night, holding, rubbing, 
trying to soothe the suffering little beast. And in 
spite of his medical treatment — for he kept the dog- 
book on his desk, and ransacked it for remedies^ — 
and notwithstanding the anointing and the cod- 
dling, two died. 

After Eliza had come down from her ram- 
pagious state, she was invited to take notice of what 



256 



TENTING OX THE PLAINS. 



a Splendid family Ginnie had. Then all the staff 
and the ladies came up to call. It was a great occa- 
sion for Ginnie, but she bore her honors meekly, 
and offered her paw, as was her old custom, to 
each new-comer, as if prepared for congratulations. 
When they were old enough to run about and 
bark, Ginnie took up her former habit of following 
at the General's heels; and as he crossed the yard 
to the stables there was so absurd a procession 
that I could not help laughing at the commanding 
officer, and question if he himself thought it added 
to the dignity of his appearance, to see the court- 
like trail of mother and five puppies in his wake. 
The independence of the chief was too inborn to 
be laughed to scorn about appearances, and so he 
continued to go about, as long as these wee tod- 
dlers followed their mother in quest of supplies. 
I believe there were twenty-three dogs at this time 
about our house, most of them ours. Even our 
father Custer accepted a bulky old cur as a gift. 
There was no manner of doubt about the qualities 
that had influenced our persecuted parent in select- 
ing this one from the numerous dogs offered him 
by his farmer friends. His choice was made 
neither on account of breeding nor speed. The 
cur was selected solely as a watch-dog. He was 
all growl and bark, and as devotion is not 
confined, fortunately, to the canines of exalted 



A BODY-GUARD. 



257 



paternity, the lumbering old fellow was faithful. 
Nothing describes him better than some lines from 
" The Outside Dog in the Fight ;" for though he 
could threaten with savage growls, and, I fancy, 
when aggravated, could have set savage teeth in 
the enemy of his master, he trotted beside our 
father's horse very peacefully, unmindful of the 
quarrelsome members of our canine family, who 
bristled up to him, inviting an encounter merely 
to pass the time. 

" You may sing of your dog, your bottom dog, 

Or of any dog that you please ; 
I go for the dog, the wise old dog, 

That knowingly takes his ease, 
And wagging his tail outside the ring, 

Keeping always his bone in sight, 
Cares not a pin, in his wise old head, 

For either dog in the fight. 

' Not his is the bone they are fighting for, 

And why should my dog sail in, 
With nothing to gain but a certain chance 

To lose his own precious skin ? 
There may be. a few, perhaps, who fail 

To see it in quite this light ; 
But when the fur flies I had rather be 

The outside dog in the fight." 

Affairs had come to such a pass that our father 
took his yellow cur into his bedroom at night. It 
was necessary to take prompt, precautionary 
measures to keep his sons from picking the lock of 



2 eg TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the door and descending on him in their maraud- 
ing expeditions. The dog saw comparatively 
Httle of outside Hfe, for, as time rounded, it be- 
came necessary for the old gentleman to shut up 
his body-guard daytimes also, as he found in his 
absence these same sons and their confederates 
had a fashion of dropping a little " nig " over the 
transom, with directions to fetch back to them 
anything he could lay his hands on. I have seen 
them at the door while our father was away, try- 
ing to soothe and cajole the old guardian of his 
master's effects into terms of peace. After all 
overtures were declined, and the little bedroom 
was simply filled up with bark and growl, the in- 
vaders contented themselves with tossing all sorts 
of missiles over the transom, which did not 
sweeten the enraged dog's temper. Nor did it 
render our father's bed as downy as it might have 
been. 

I find myself recalling with a smile the perfectly 
satisfied manner in which this ungainly old dog 
was taken out by his venerable owner on our rides 
over the country. Father Custer had chosen him, 
not for his beauty, but as his companion, and find- 
ing him so successful in this one capacity, he was 
just as serene over his possession as ever his sons 
were with their high-bred hunters. The dog 
looked as if he were a make-up from all the rough 



BOWSER AND HIS MASTER. 259 

clay that was discarded after modeling the sleek, 
high-stepping, springy, fleet-footed dogs of our 
pack. His legs were massive, while his cumber- 
some tail curled over his plebeian back in a 
tight coil, until he was tired — then, and only 
then, did it uncurl. The droop of his head was 
rendered even more " loppy " by the tongue, which 
dropped outside the sagging jaw. But for all that, 
he lumbered along, a blotch of ungainly yellow, 
beside our splendid thoroughbreds; he was never 
so tired that he could not understand the voice of 
a proud old man, who assured his retrograde sons 
that he " would match his Bowser 'gainst any of 
their new-fangled, unreliable, high-falutin lot." 

It was a strange sight, though, this one plebeian 
among patricians. Our horses were fine, our 
father got good speed and some style out of his 
nag, our dogs leaped over the country like deer, 
and there in the midst, panting and faithfully 
struggling to keep up, was the rough, uncouth old 
fellow, too absorbed in endeavoring not to be left 
behind, to realize that he was not all that a dog 
could be, after generations of training and breed- 
ing had done its refining work. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS A WOMAN's HORSE- 
EDUCATION AT THE STABLES LEAVING AUSTIN FOR 

HEMPSTEAD SAM HOUSTON A HERO AMONG OUR 

OFFICERS DETENTION IN GALVESTON A TEXAS 

NORTHER ON THE GULF OF MEXICO NARROW 

ESCAPE FROM SHIPWRECK RETURN HOME ON A 

MISSISSIPPI STEAMER. 

" I "EXAS was in a state of ferment from one end 
to the other. There was then no network of 
railroads running over its vast territory as there is 
now. Lawless acts might be perpetrated, and the 
inciters cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, before 
news of the depredations came to either military 
or civil headquarters. The regiments stationed at 
various points in the State had no easy duty. Jay- 
hawkers, bandits and bush-whackers had every- 
thing their own way for a time. I now find, 
through official reports, what innumerable per- 
plexities came up almost daily, and how difficult 
it was for an officer in command of a division to 
act in perfect justice to citizen, soldier and negro. 
It was the most natural result in the world that 

i6o 



A DE VO TED PA TRIO T. 2 6 1 

the restless throng let loose over the State from 
the Confederate service, should do what idle 
hands usually find to do. Consider what a land 
of tramps we were at the North, after the war; and 
if in our prosperous States and Territories, when so 
many business industries were at once resumed, 
we suffered from that class of men who refused to 
work and kept outside the pale of the law by 
a sneaking existence, what would naturally be the 
condition of affairs in a country like Texas, for 
many years the hiding-place of outlaws ? 

My own father was one of the most patriotic men 
1 ever knew. He was too old to enter the service 
—an aged man even in my sight, for he had not 
married till he was forty ; but in every way that 
he could serve his country at home, he was fore- 
most among the elderly patriots of the North. I 
remember how little war moved me. The clash 
of arms and glitter of the soldiery only appealed 
to me as it did to thoughtless, light-hearted young 
girls still without soldier lovers or brothers, who 
lived too far from the scenes of battle to know the 
tragic side. But my father impressed me by his 
sadness, his tears, his lamentations, over our coun- 
try's misfortunes. He was the first in town to get 
the news from the front, and so eager to hear the 
result of some awful day, when lives were being 
lost by thousands on a hotly contested field, that 



262 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

he walked a bleak, lonely mile to the telegraph 
station, waiting till midnight for the last de- 
spatches, and weeping over defeats as he wearily 
trod the long way homeward. I remember his 
striding up and down the floor, his grand head 
bent over his chest in grief, and saying, so solemnly 
as to arrest the attention of my step-mother, 
usually absorbed in domestic affairs, and even of 
me, too happy then with the very exuberance of 
living to thmk, while the sadness of his voice 
touched even our thoughtlessness : " Oh ! the 
worst of this calamity will not be confined to war: 
our land, even after peace is restored, will be filled 
with cut-throats and villains." 

The prediction came true immediately in Texas, 
and the troops had to be stationed over the ex- 
tensive territory. Before the winter was over, the 
civil authorities began to be able to carry out the 
laws; they worked, as they were obliged to do, in 
connection with the military, and the rioting, op- 
pressions and assassinations were becoming less 
common. It was considered unnecessary to retain 
the Division of cavalry as an organization, since all 
anticipated trouble with Mexico was over, and the 
troops need no longer be massed in great numbers^ 
The necessity for a special commander for the 
cavalry in the State was over, and the General 
was therefore mustered out of service as a major- 



'BOOTS AND SADDLES." 263 



general of volunteers, and ordered North to await 
his assignment to a new station. 

We had very little to do in preparation, as our 
camp outfit was about all our earthly possessions 
at that time. It was a trial to part with the 
elderly dogs, which were hardly worth the experi- 
ment of transporting to the North, especially as 
we had no reason to suppose we should see 
another deer, except in zoological gardens. The 
hounds fell into good and appreciative hands, be- 
ing given either to the planter who had presented 
them, or to the officers of the regular regiment 
that had just been stationed in Texas for a five- 
years' detail. The cow was returned to the gen- 
erous planter who lent her to us. She was now 
a fat, sleek creature, compared with her appear- 
ance when she came from among the ranch cattle. 
The stables were emptied, and our brief enjoy- 
ment of an embryo blue-grass farm, with a diminu- 
tive private track of our own, was at an end. 
Jack Rucker, Custis Lee, Phil and the blooded 
mare were to go ; but the great bargains in fast 
ponies had to be sacrificed. 

My old father Custer had been as concerned 
about my horse-education as his sons. He also 
tried, as well as his boys, to attract my attention 
from the flowing manes and tails, by which alone 
I judged the merits of a horse, to the shoulders, 



264 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

length of limb, withers, etc. One day there came 
an incentive for perfecting myself in horse lore, 
for my husband said that if I would select the best 
pony in a number we then owned, I should have 
him. I sat on a keg in the stable-yard, contem- 
plating the heels of the horses, and wishing fer- 
vently I had listened to my former lessons in 
horse-flesh more attentively. All three men 
laughed at my perplexities, and even the soldiers 
who took care of the stable retired to a safe place 
to smile at the witticisms of their commanding 
officer, and were so deplorably susceptible to fun 
that even the wife of their chief was a subject for 
merriment. I was in imminent danger of losing 
my chance at owning a horse, and might to this 
day have remained ignorant of the peculiarly 
proud sensation one experiences over that posses- 
sion, if my father Custer had not slyly and surrep- 
titiously come over to my side. How he cunningly 
imparted the information, I will not betray ; but, 
since he was as good a judge of a horse as his 
sons, and had taught them their wisdom in that 
direction, it is needless to say that my final judg- 
ment, after repeated returns to the stable, was 
triumphant. Texas made the old saw read. 
All is fair in love, war and horse-trades, so I 
adapted myself to the customs of the country, and 
kept the secret of my wise judgment until the 




GENERAL CUSTER AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR -AGED 25. 



265 



266 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

money that the pony brought — forty dollars in 
silver-— was safely deposited in my grasping" palm. 
I will not repeat the scoffing of the outwitted pair, 
after I had spent the money, at " Libbie's horse- 
dress," but content myself with my father's praise 
at the gown he had secured to me, when I enjoyed 
at the North the serenity of mind that comes of 
silken attire. 

The planters came to bid us good-by, and we 
parted from them with reluctance. We had come 
into their State under trying circumstances, and 
the cordiality, generosity and genuine good feel- 
ing that I know they felt, made our going a regret. 
There was no reason why they should come from 
their distant plantations to say good-by and wish 
us godspeed, except from personal friendship, 
and we all appreciated the wish they expressed, 
that we might remain. 

The journey from Austin to Hempstead was 
made much more quickly than our march over. 
We had relays of horses, the roads were good, and 
there was no detention. I only remember one 
episode of any importance. At the little hotel at 
which we stopped in Brennan, we found loitering 
about the doors and stoop and inner court a 
lounging, rough lot of men, evidently the lower 
order of Confederate soldiers, the lawless set that 
infest all armies, the tramp and the bummer. 



BARKING FOES. 26/ 

They gathered in knots, to watch and talk of us. 
As we passed them on our way to the dining- 
room, they muttered, and even spoke audibly, 
words of spiteful insult. At every such word I 
expected the fiery blood of the General and his 
staff would be raised to fighting heat. But they 
would not descend to altercation with fellows to 
whom even the presence of a woman was no re- 
straint. It was a mystery, it still is, to me, that 
hot-blooded men can control themselves if they 
consider the foeman unworthy of the steel. 
My husband was ever a marvel to me, in that he 
could in this respect carry out his own oft-re- 
peated counsel. I began very early with that old 
maxim, " consider the source," as a subterfuge for 
the lack of repartee, in choking senseless, childish 
wrath ; but it came to be a family aphorism, and 
I was taught to live up to its best meaning. The 
Confederates were only " barking," not "biting," as 
the General said would be the case ; but they gave 
me a genuine scare, and I had serious objections 
to traveling in Texas, unaccompanied by a Divi- 
sion of cavalry. I think the cold nights, smoky 
camp-fires, tarantulas, etc., that we encountered on 
our march over, would have been gladly under- 
taken, rather than run into the face of threatening 
men, unaccompanied by a single trooper, as we 
then traveled. 



268 * TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

I wonder what the present tourist would think 
of the bit of railroad over which we journeyed 
from Brennan to Galveston ! I scarcely think it 
had been touched, in the way of repairs, during the 
war. The coaches were not as good as our present 
emigrant-cars. The rails were worn down thin, 
and so loosely secured that they moved as we rolled 
slowly over them. We were to be constantly 
in some sort of peril, it seemed. There was 
a deep gulley on the route, over which was 
stretched a cobweb trestle, intended only as a 
temporary bridge. There was no sort of ques- 
tion about its insecurity ; it quivered and mena- 
cingly swayed under us. The conductor told us 
that each time he crossed he expected to go down. 
I think he imagined there could be no better time 
than that, when it would secure the effectual de- 
parture of a few Yankee officers, not only from 
what he considered his invaded State, but from the 
face of the earth. At any rate, he so graphically 
described to me our imminent peril that he put me 
through all the preliminary stages of sudden death. 
Of course our officers, inured to risks of all sorts, 
took it all as a matter of course, and the General 
slyly called the attention of our circle to the usual 
manner in which the '* old lady " met danger, 
namely, with her head buried in the folds of a 
cloak. 



A SOLDIER PIONEER. 269 

My husband knew what interest and admiration 
my father Bacon had for "old Sam Houston," and 
he himself felt the delight that one soldier takes in 
the adventures and vicissitudes of another. Con- 
sequently, we had listened all winter to the Texans' 
laudation of their hero, and [many a story that 
never found its way into print was remembered 
for my father's sake. We were only too sorry that 
Houston's death, two years previous, had prevent- 
ed our personal acquaintance. He was not, as I 
had supposed, an ignorant soldier of fortune, but 
had early scholarly tastes, and, even when a boy, 
could repeat nearly all of Pope's translation of the 
Iliad. Though a Virginian by birth, he early 
went with his widowed mother to Tennessee, and 
his roving spirit led him among the Indians, where 
he lived for years as the adopted son of a chief. 
He served as an enlisted man under Andrew 
Jackson in the war of 1812, and afterward became 
a lieutenant in the regular army. Then he assumed 
the office of Indian agent, and befriended those 
with whom he had lived. 

From that he went into law in Nashville, and 
eventually became a Congressman. Some mari- 
tal difficulties drove him back to barbarism, and 
he rejoined the Cherokees, who had been removed 
to Arkansas. He went to Washington to plead 
for the tribe, and returning, left his wigwam 



270 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



among the Indians after a time, and went to Texas. 
During the tumuhuous history of that State, when 
it was being shifted from one government to 
another with such vehemence, no citizen could tell 
whether he would rise in the morning a Mexican, 
or a member of an independent republic, or a 
citizen of the United States. 

With all that period Sam Houston was identi- 
fied. He was evidently the man for the hour, and 
it is no wonder that our officers dwelt with delight 
upon his marvelous career. In the first revolution- 
ary movement of Texas against Mexican rule, he 
began to be a leader, and was soon commander- 
in-chief of the Texan army, and in the new Re- 
public he was re-elected to that office. The 
dauntless man confronted Santa Anna and his 
force of 5,000 men with a handful of Texans — 
783 all told, undisciplined volunteers, ignorant of 
war. But he had that rare personal magnetism, 
which is equal to a reserve of armed battalions, in 
giving men confidence and inciting them to 
splendid deeds. Out of 1,600 regular Mexican 
soldiers, 600 were killed, and Santa Anna, dis- 
guised as a common soldier, was captured. Then 
Houston showed his magnanimous heart ; for after 
rebuking him for the massacres of Goliad and the 
Alamo, he protected him from the vengeance of 
the enraged Texans. A treaty made with the 



TEX A S' EARL V HIS TOR V. 



271 



captive President resulted in the independence of 
Texas. When, after securing this to the State of 
his adoption, Houston was made President of 
Texas, he again showed his wonderful clemency — 
which I cannot help believing was early fostered 
and enhanced by his labors in behalf of the 
wronged Cherokees — in pardoning Santa Anna, 
and appointing his political rivals to offices of trust. 
If Mr. Lincoln gave every energy to promoting the 
perpetual annexation of California, by tethering 
that State to our Republic with an iron lariat cross- 
ing the continent, how quickly he would have 
seen, had he then been in office, what infinite peril 
we were in of losing that rich portion of our 
country. 

The ambition of the soldier and conqueror was 
tempered by the most genuine patriotism, for Sam 
Houston used his whole influence to annex Texas 
to the Union, and the people in gratitude sent him 
to Washington as one of their first Senators. As 
President he had overcome immense difficulties, 
carried on Indian wars, cleared off an enormous 
debt, established trade with Mexico, made suc- 
cessful Indian treaties, and steadily stood at the 
helm, while the State was undergoing all sorts of 
upheavals. Finally he was made Governor of the 
State, and opposed secession, even resigning his 
office rather than take the oath required by the 



272 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

convention that assembled to separate Texas from 
the Union. Then, poor old man, he died before 
he was permitted to see the promised land, as the 
war was still in progress. His name is perpet- 
uated in the town called for him, which, as the 
centre of large railroad interests, and as a leader 
in the march of improvement in that rapidly pro- 
gressing State, will be a lasting monument to a 
great man who did so much to bring out of chaos 
a vast extent of our productive land, sure to be- 
come one of the richest of the luxuriant Southern 
States. 

At Galveston we were detained by the non- 
arrival of the steamer in which we were to go 
to New Orleans. With a happy-go-lucky party like 
ours, it mattered little ; no important . interests 
were at stake, no business appointments awaiting 
us. We strolled the town over, and commented, 
as if we owned it, on the insecurity of its founda- 
tions. Indeed, for years after, we were surprised, 
on taking up the morning paper, not to find that 
Galveston had dropped down into China. The 
spongy soil is so porous that the water on which 
rests the thin layer of earth appears as soon as a 
shallow excavation is attempted. Of course there 
are no wells, and the ungainly cistern rises above 
the roof at the rear of the house. The hawkers of 
water through the town amused us vastly, especi- 



AN INSECURE TOWN. 



27. 



ally as we were not obliged to pay a dollar a gal- 
lon, except as it swelled our hotel-bill. I remember 
how we all delighted in the oleanders that grew 
as shade trees, whose white and red blossoms were 
charming. To the General, the best part of all our 
detention was the shell drive along the ocean. The 
island on which Galveston has its insecure footing 
is twenty-eight miles long, and the white, firm 
beach, glistening with the pulverized shells ex- 
tending all the distance, was a delight to us as we 
spent hours out there on the shore. 

It must surely have been this white and spark- 
ling thread bordering the island, that drew the 
ships of the pirate Lafitte to moor in the harbor 
early in 1800. The rose pink of the oleander, the 
blue of the sky, the luminous beach, with the long, 
ultramarine waves sweeping in over the shore, 
were fascinating; but on our return to the town, 
all the desire to remain was taken away by the tale 
of the citizens, of the frequent rising of the ocean, 
the submerging of certain portions, and the evi- 
dence they gave, that the earth beneath them was 
honey-combed by the action of the water. 

We paid little heed at first to the boat on which 
we embarked. It was a captured blockade-runner, 
built up with two stories of cabins and staterooms 
for passengers. In its original condition, the crew 
and passengers, as well as the freight, were down 



2 74 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



in the hull. The steamer was crowded. Our 
staterooms were tiny, and though they were on 
the upper deck, the odor of bilge water and the 
untidiness of the boat made us uncomfortable 
from the first. The day was sunny and clear as 
we departed, but we had hardly left the harbor 
before w^e struck a norther. Such a hurricane as 
it was at sea ! We had thought ourselves versed 
in all the wind could do on land ; but a norther in 
that maelstrom of a Gulf, makes a land storm mild 
in comparison. The Gulf of Mexico is almost 
always a tempest in a tea-pot. The waves 
seem to lash themselves from shore to shore, and 
after speeding with tornado fleetness toward the 
borders of Mexico, back they rush to the Florida 
peninsula. No one can be out in one of these 
tempests, without wondering why that thin jet of 
land which composes Florida has not long ago 
been swept out of existence. How many of our 
troops have suffered from the fury of that ungov- 
ernable Gulf, in the transit from New Orleans to 
Matamoras or Galveston ! And officers have 
spoken, over and over again, of the sufferings of 
the cavalry horses, condemned to the hold of a 
Government transport. Ships have gone down 
there with soldiers and officers who have encoun- 
tered over and over again the perils of battle. 
Transports have only been saved from being en- 



A TEMPEST AT SEA. 275 

gulfed in those rapacious waves by unloading the 
ship of hundreds of horses ; and to cavalrymen the 
throwing overboard of noble animals that have 
been untiring in years of campaigning, and by 
their fleetness and pluck have saved the lives of 
their masters, is like human sacrifice. Officers and 
soldiers alike bewail the loss, and for years after 
speak of it with sorrow. 

Though the wind seems to blow in a circle much 
of the time on the Gulf, we found it dead against 
us as we proceeded. The captain was a resolute 
man, and would not turn back, though the ship 
was ill prepared to encounter such a gale. We 
labored slowly through the constantly increasing 
tempest, and the last glimpse of daylight lighted 
a sea that was lashed to white foam about us. 
At home, when the sun sets the wind abates ; but 
one must look for an entire change of programme 
where the norther reigns. There was no use in 
remaining up, so I sought to forget my terror in 
sleep, and crept onto one of the little shelves 
allotted to us. The creaking and groaning of the 
ship's timbers filled me with alarm, and I could 
not help calling up to my husband to ask if it did 
not seem to him that all the new portion of the 
steamer would be swept off into the sea. Though 
I was comforted by assurances of its impossibility, 
I wished with all my heart we were down in the 



276 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



hold. Sleep, my almost never-failing friend, came 
to calm me, and I dreamed of the strange days of 
the blockade - runner, when doubtless other 
women's hearts were pounding against their ribs 
with more alarming terrors than those that agi- 
tated me. For we well knew what risks Confed- 
erate women took to join their husbands, in the 
stormy days on sea as well as on land. 

In the night I was awakened suddenly by a fear- 
ful crash, the quick veering of the boat, and her 
violent rolling from side to side. At the same in- 
stant, the overturning of the water-pitcher deluged 
me in my narrow berth. My husband, hearing my 
cry of terror, descended from his berth and was 
beside me in a moment. No one comprehended 
what had happened. The crashing of timber, and 
the creaking, grinding sounds rose above the 
storm. The machinery was stopped, and we 
plunged back and forth in the trough of the sea; 
each time seeming to go down deeper and deeper, 
until there appeared to be no doubt that the 
ship would be eventually engulfed. There 
seemed to be no question, as the breaking of 
massive beams went on, that we were going to 
pieces. The ship made a brave fight with the ele- 
ments, and seemed to writhe and struggle like 
something human. 

In the midst of this, the shouts of the sailors, 



WAVES '' MOUNTAIN high:' 



277 



the trumpet of the captain giving orders, went on, 
and was followed by the creaking of chains, the 
strain of the cordage, and the mad thrashing to 
and fro of the canvas, which we supposed had 
been torn from the spars. Instant disorder took 
possession of the cabin. Everything moveable 
was in motion. The trunks, which the crowded 
condition of the hold had compelled us to put in 
the upper end of the cabin, slid down the carpet, 
banging from side to side. The furniture broke 
from its fastenings, and slipped to and fro ; the 
smashing of lamps in our cabin was followed by 
the crash of crockery in the adjoining dining- 
room ; while above all these sounds rose the cries 
and wails of the women. Some, kneeling in their 
night-clothes, prayed loudly, while others sank in 
heaps on the floor, moaning and weeping in their 
helpless condition. The calls of frantic women 
asking for some one to go and find if we were go- 
ing down, were unanswered by the terrified men. 
Meanwhile my husband, having implored me to 
remain in one spot, and not attempt to follow him, 
hastily threw on his clothes and left me, begging 
that I would remember, while he was absent, that 
the captain's wife and child were with us, and if a 
man ever was nerved to do his best, that brave 
husband and father would do so to-night. 

It seemed an eternity to wait. I was obliged to 



278 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



cling to the door to be kept from being dashed 
across the cabin. While I wept and shivered, and 
endured double agony, knowing into what peril 
my husband had by that time struggled, I felt 
warm, soft arms about me, and our faithful Eliza 
was crooning over me, begging me to be com- 
forted, that she was there holding me. Awakened 
at the end of the cabin, where she slept on a sofa, 
she thought of nothing but making her way 
through the demolished furniture, to take me in 
her protecting arms. Every one who knows the 
negro character is aware what their terrors are at 
sea. How, then, can I recall the noble forgetful- 
ness of self of that faithful soul, without tears of 
gratitude as fresh as those that flowed on her 
tender breast when she held me ? There was not 
a vestige of the heroic about me. I simply cow- 
ered in a corner, and let Eliza shelter me. Besides, 
I felt that I had a kind of right to yield to selfish 
fright, for it was my husband of all the men on 
ship-board, who had climbed laboriously to the 
deck to do what he could for our safety, and calm 
the agitated women below. 

Some of the noble Southern women proved how 
deep was their natural goodness of heart ; for the 
very ones who had coldly looked me over and 
shrunk from a hated Yankee when we met the 
day before, crept slowly up to calm my terrors 



A PERILOUS RISK. 279 

about my husband, and instruct Eliza what to do 
for me. At last — and oh, how interminable the 
time had seemed ! — the General opened the cabin 
door, and struggled along to the weeping women. 
They all plied him with questions, and he was 
able to calm them, so the wailing and praying 
subsided somewhat. When he climbed up the 
companionway, the waves were dashing over the 
entire deck, and he was compelled to creep on his 
hands and knees, clinging to ropes and spars as 
best he could, till he reached the pilot-house. 
Only his superb strength kept him from being 
swept overboard. Every inch of his progress was 
a deadly peril. He found the calm captain willing 
to explain, and paid the tribute that one brave man 
gives another in moments of peril. The norther 
had broken in the wheel-house, and disabled the 
machinery, so that, but for the sails, which we 
who were below had heard raised, we must have 
drifted and tossed to shipwreck. If he could make 
any progress, we were comparatively safe, but 
with such a hurricane all was uncertain. This 
part of the captain's statement the General sup- 
pressed. ,We women were told, after the fashion 
of men who desire to comfort and calm our sex, 
only a portion of the truth. 

The motion of the boat as it rolled from side 
to side, made every one succumb except Eliza 



28o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and me. The General, completely subdued and 
intensely wretched physically, crept into his berth, 
and though he was so miserable, I remember, 
toward morning-, a faint thrust of ridicule at our 
adjoining neighbors, the Greens, who were suffer- 
ing also the tortures of sea-sickness. A sarcastic 
query as to the stability of their stomachs, called 
forth a retort that he had better look to his own. 
Eliza held me untiringly, and though the terror 
of uncertainty had subsided somewhat, I could 
not get on without an assurance of our safety 
from that upper berth. My husband, in his help- 
lessness, and abandoned as he was to misery, 
could scarcely turn to speak more than a word or 
two at a time, and even then Eliza would tell him, 
" Ginnel, you jest 'tend to your own self, and I'll 
'tend to Miss Libbie." 

It is difficult to explain what a shock it is to find 
one who never succumbs, entirely subjugated by 
suffering ; all support seems to be removed. In 
all our vicissitudes, I had never before seen the 
General go under for an instant. He replied that 
he was intensely sorry for me ; but such deadly 
nausea made him indifferent to life, and for his 
part he cared not whether he went up or down. 

So the long night wore on. I thought no dawn 
ever seemed so sfrateful. The waves were mount- 
ains high, and we still plunged into what appeared 



THE STORM SUBSIDES. 28 1 

to be solid banks of green, glittering crystal, only to 
drop down into seemingly hopeless gulfs. But day- 
light diminishes all terrors, and there was hope with 
the coming of light. A few crept out, and some 
even took courage for breakfast. The feeble notes 
disappeared from my husband's voice, and he be- 
gan to cheer me up. Then he crept to our witty 
Mrs. Green (the dear Nettie of our home days), to 
send more sly thrusts in her stateroom, regarding 
his opinion of one who yielded to sea-sickness ; so 
she was badgered into making an appearance. 
While all were contributing experiences of the 
awful night, and commenting on their terrors, we 
were amazed to see the door of a stateroom 
open, and a German family walk out uncon- 
cernedly from what we all night supposed was an 
unoccupied room. The parents and three children 
showed wide-eyed and wide-mouthed wonder, 
when they heard of the night. Through all the 
din and danger they had peacefully slept, and 
doubtless would have gone down, had we been 
shipwrecked, unconscious in their lethargy that 
death had come to them. 

Then the white, exhausted faces of our officers, 
who had slept in the other cabin, began to appear. 
Our father Custer came tottering in, and made his 
son shout out with merriment, even in the midst 
of all the wretched surroundino^s, when he lacon- 



282 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ically said to his boy, that "next time I follow 
you to Texas, it will be when this pond is 
bridged over." Two of the officers had a state- 
room next the pilot-house, and beg-ged the Gen- 
eral to bring- me up there. My husband, feeling 
so deeply the terrible night of terror and entire 
wakefulness for me, picked me up, and carried 
me to the upper deck, where I was laid in the 
berth, and restored to some sort of calm by an 
opportune glass of champagne. The wine seemed 
to do my husband as much good as it did me, 
though he did not taste it ; all vestige of his pros- 
tration of the preceding night disappeared, and 
no one escaped his comical recapitulation of how 
they conducted themselves when we were threat- 
ened with such peril. My terrors of the sea were 
too deep-rooted to be set aside, and even after we 
had left the hated Gulf, and were safely moving 
up the Mississippi to New Orleans, I felt no secur- 
ity. Nothing but the actual planting of our feet on 
terra firmax^stox^^ my equanimity. Among the 
petitions of the Litany, asking our Heavenly Father 
to protect us, none since that Gulf storm has ever 
been emphasized to me as the prayer for preserva- 
tion from " perils by land and by sea." 

New Orleans was again a pleasure to us, and 
this time we knew just whereto go for recreation 
or for our dinner. Nearly a year in Texas had 



HIGH ART DINNERS. 283 

prepared us for gastronomic feats, and though the 
General was by no means a don-vivant, any one 
so susceptible to surroundings as he would be 
tempted by the dainty serving of a French din- 
ner. Our party had dined too often with Duke 
Humphrey in the pine forests of Louisiana and 
Texas, not to enjoy every delicacy served. All 
through the year it had been the custom to refer 
to the luxuries of the French market, and now, 
with our purses a little fuller than when we were 
on our way into Texas, we had some royal times — 
that is, for poor folks. 

We took a steamer for Cairo, and though the 
novelty of river travel was over, it continued to be 
most enjoyable. And still the staff found the 
dinner-hour an event, as they were making up for 
our limited bill of fare the year past. A very 
good string band " charmed the savage " 
while he dined. It was the custom, now obsolete, 
to march the white coated and aproned waiters 
in file from kitchen to dining-room, each carry- 
ing aloft some feat of the cook, and as we 
had a table to ourselves, there was no lack of 
witty comments on this military serving of our 
food, and smacking of lips over edibles we had 
almost forgotten in our year of semi-civilization. 
The negroes were in a state of perpetual guffaws 
over the remarks made, soiio voce, by our merry 



284 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

table, and they soon grew to be skillful confeder- 
ates in all the pranks practiced on our father 
Custer. For instance, he slowly read over the bill 
of fare, or his sons read it, and he chose the viands 
as they were repeated to him. Broiled ham on 
coals seemed to attract his old-fashioned taste. 
Then my husband said, " Of course, of course ; 
what a good selection ! " and gave the order, ac- 
companied by a significant wink to the waiter. 
Presently our parent, feeling an unnatural warmth 
near liis ear, would look around to find his order 
filled literally, and the ham sizzling on red coals. 
He naturally did not know what to do with the 
dish, fearing to set the boat on fire, and his sons 
were preternaturally absorbed in talking with 
some one at the end of the table, while the waiter 
slid back to the kitchen to have his laugh out. 

Our father Custer was of the most intensely 
argumentative nature. He was the strongest sort 
of politician ; he is now, and grows excited and 
belligerent over his party affairs at nearly eighty, 
as if he were a lad. He is beloved at home in 
Monroe, but it is considered too good fun not to 
fling little sneers at his candidate or party, just to 
witness the rapidity with which the old gentleman 
plunges into a defense. Michigan's present Sec- 
retary of State, the Hon. Harry Conant, my 
husband's, and now my father's, faithful friend, 



A BELLIGERENT POLITICIAN. 285 

early took his cue from the General, and loses 
no opportunity now to get up a wordy war with 
our venerable Democrat, solely to hear the defense. 
And then, too, our father Custer considers it time 
well spent to "labor with that young man" over 
the error he considers he has made in the choice 
of politics. As the old gentleman drives or rides 
his son's war-horse, Dandy, through the town, his 
progress is slow, for some voice is certain to be 
raised from the sidewalk calling out, " Well, 
father Custer, to-day's paper shows your side well 
whipped," or a like challenge to argument. Dandy 
is drawn up at once, and the flies can nip his sides 
at will, so far as his usually careful master is 
conscious of him, as he cannot proceed until 
the one who has good-naturedly agitated him has 
been struggled over, to convince him of the error 
of his belief. 

I was driving with him in Monroe not long 
since, and as the train was passing through the 
town, Dandy was driven up to the cars. I ex- 
postulated, asking if he intended him to climb 
over or creep under ; but he persisted, only ex- 
plaining that he wished me to see how gentle 
Dandy could be. Suddenly the conductor swung 
himself from the platform, and called out some 
bantering words about politics. Our father was 
then for driving Dandy directly into the train. He 



286 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

fairly yelled a slur upon the other party, and then 
kept on talking, gesticulating with his whip and 
shaking it at the conductor, who laughed immod- 
erately as he was being carried out of sight. I 
asked what was the matter — did he have any 
grudge or hatred for the man ? " Oh, no, daughter, 
he's a good enough fellow, only he's an onery 
scamp of a Republican." 

His sons never lost a chance to enter into dis- 
cussion with him. I have known the General to 
" bone up," as his West Point phrase expressed it, 
on the smallest details of some question at issue 
in the Republican party, for no other reason than 
to fire his parent into a defense. The discussion 
was so earnest, that even I would be deceived into 
thinking it something my husband was all on fire 
about. But the older man was never rasped or 
badgered into anger. He worked and struggled 
with his boy, and mourned that he should have a 
son who had so far strayed from the truth, as he 
understood it. The General argued as vehement- 
ly as his father, and never undeceived him for 
days, but simply let the old gentleman think how 
misguided he really was. It served to pass many 
an hour of slow travel up the river. Tom con- 
nived with the General to deprive their father 
temporarily of his dinner. When the plate was 
well prepared, as was the old-time custom, the 



BADGERING SONS. 



287 



potato and vegetables seasoned, the meat cut, it 
was the signal for my husband to fire a bomb of 
inflammable information at the whitening hairs of 
his parent. The old man would rather argue 
than eat, and, laying down his knife and fork, he 
fell to the discussion as eagerly as if he had not 
been hungry. As the argument grew energetic 
and more absorbing, Tom slipped away the 
father's plate, ate all the nicely prepared food, and 
returned it empty to its place. Then the General 
tapered off his aggravating threats, and said, 
"Well, come, come, come, father, why don't you 
eat your dinner ?" Father Custer's blank face at 
the sight of the empty plate was a mirth-provok- 
ing sight to his offspring, and they took good care 
to tip the waiter and order a warm dinner for the 
still argumg man. In a quaint letter, a portion of 
which I give below, father Custer tells how early 
in life he began to teach his boys politics. 

" Tecumseh, Mich., Feb. 3, 1887. 
" My Dear Daughter Elizabeth : I received 
your letter, requesting me to tell you something 
of our trip up the Mississippi with my dear boys, 
Autie and Tommy. Well, as I was always a boy 
with my boys, I will try and tell you of some of 
our jokes and tricks on each other. I want to tell 
you also of a little incident when Autie was about 
four years old. He had to have a tooth drawn, 
and he was very much afraid of blood. When I 
took him to the doctor to have the tooth pulled. 



288 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

it was in the night, and I told him if it bled well 
it would get well right away, and he must be a 
good soldier. When he got to the doctor he took 
his seat, and the pulling began. The forceps 
slipped off, and he had to make a second trial. 
He pulled it out, and Autie never even scrunched. 
Going home, I led him by the arm. He jumped 
and skipped, and said, ' Father, you and me can 
whip all the Whigs in Michigan.' I thought that 
was saying a good deal, but I did not contra- 
dict him. 

" When we were in Texas, I was at Autie's 
headquarters one day, and something came up, 
I've forgotten what it was, but I said I would bet 
that it was not so, and he said ' What will you 
bet?' I said, 'I'll bet my trunk.' I have for- 
gotten the amount he put up against it, but ac- 
cording to the rule of betting he won my trunk. 
I thought that was the end of it, as I took it just 
as a joke, and I remained there with him for some 
time. To my great astonishment, here came an 
orderly with the trunk on his shoulder, and set 
it down before Autie. Well, I hardly knew what 
to think. I hadn't been there long, and didn't 
know camp ways very well. I had always under- 
stood that the soldiers were a pretty rough set of 
customers, and I wanted to know how to try and 
take care of myself, so I thought I would go up 
to my tent and see what had become of my goods 
and chattels. When I got there, all my things 
were on my bed. Tom had taken them out, and 
he had not been very particular in getting them 
out, so they were scattered helter-skelter, for I 
suppose he was hurried and thought I would 
catch him at it. I began to think that I would 
have to hunt quarters in some other direction. 

" The next trick Autie played me was on ac- 



BO YISH PRANKS. 289 

count of his knowing that I was very anxious to 
see an alhgator. He was out with his gun one 
day, and 1 heard him shoot, and when he came up 
to his tent I asked him what he had been firing at. 
He said an alHgator, so I started off to see the 
animal, and when I found it, what do you think it 
was, but an old Government mule that had died 
because it was played out ! Well, he had a hearty 
laugh over that trick. 

'' Then, my daughter, I was going over my mess 
bill and some of my accounts with Tommy, and 
to my great astonishment I found I was out a 
hundred dollars. I could not see how I could 
have made such a mistake, but I just kept this to 
myself. I didn't say a word about it until Autie 
and Tom could not stand it any longer, so Autie 
asked me one day about my money matters. I 
told him I was out a hundred dollars, and I could not 
understand it. Then he just told me that Tonnny 
had hooked that sum from me while he was pre- 
tending to help me straighten up. I went for 
Tom, and got my stolen money back. 

"The next outrage on me was about the mess 
bill. There was you, Libbie ; Autie, Tom, Colonel 
and Mrs. Green, Major and Mrs. Lyon, and we 
divided up the amount spent each month, and all 
took turns running the mess. Somehow or 
other, my bill was pretty big when Autie and 
Tom had the mess. I just rebelled against 
such extravagance, and rather than suffer myself 
to be robbed, I threatened to go and mess 
with the wagon-master or some other honest 
soldier, who wouldn't cheat an old man. That 
tickled the boys ; it was just what they were aim- 
ing at. I wouldn't pay, so what do you think 
Tommy did, but borrow the amount of me to buy 
supplies, and when settling time came for mess 



290 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



bills, they said we came out about even in money 
matters ! 

"And so they were all the time playing tricks on 
me, and it pleased them so much to get off a good 
joke ; besides, they knew I was just as good a boy 
with them as they were." 

Your affectionate father, 

E. H. Custer. 



CHAPTER X. 

FATHER CUSTER GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF HOW HE 
WAS A BOY WITH HIS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI 

RIVER A FAMILY ROBBERY GENERAL CUSTER 

PARTS WITH HIS STAFF AT CAIRO AND DETROIT 
THE SILENT HEROES TEMPTATIONS TO IN- 
DUCE GENERAL CUSTER TO RESIGN OFFERS 

FROM MEXICO ONE OF HIS CLASSMATES ENTERS 

THE MINISTRY. 

A LL the smaller schemes to tease our father 
Custer gave way to a grand one, concocted 
in the busy brains of his boys, to rob their parent. 
While the patriarch sat in the cabin, reading aloud 
to himself — as is still his custom — what he consid- 
ered the soul-convincing editorial columns of a 
favorite paper, his progeny were in some sheltered 
corner of the guards, plotting the discomfiture of 
their father. The plans were well laid ; but the 
General was obliged to give as much time to it,, 
in a way, as when projecting a raid, for he knew 
he had to encounter a wily foe who was always 
on guard. The father, early in their childhood, 
playing all sorts of tricks on his boys, was on the 



292 TENTIXG O.V THE PLAINS. 

alert whenever he was with them, to parry a re- 
turn thrust. I beheve several attempts had been 
made to take the old gentleman's money, but he 
was too wary. They knew that he had sewed 
some bills in his waistcoat, and that his steamer- 
ticket and other money were in his purse. These 
he carefully placed under his pillow at night. He 
continues in his letter: "Tommy and I had a 
stateroom together, and on one night in particu- 
lar, all the folks had gone to bed in the cabin, and 
Tom was hurrying me to go to bed. I was not 
sleepy, and did not want to turn in, but he hung 
round so, that at last I did go to our stateroom. 
He took the upper berth. I put my vest under 
the pillow, and was pulling off my boots, when I 
felt sure I saw something going out over the 
transom. I looked under the pillow, and my vest 
was gone. Then I waked Tommy, who was snor- 
ing already. I told him both my purse and vest 
were gone, and, as the saying is, I ' smelt the rat.' 
I opened the door, and felt sure that Autie had 
arranged to snatch the vest and purse when it was 
thrown out. I ran out in the cabin to his state- 
room, but he had the start of me, and was locked 
in. I did not know for sure which was his room, 
so I hit and I thundered at his door. The people 
stuck their heads out of their staterooms, and 
over the transom came a glass of water. So I, 



FAMILY THIEVING. 



293 



being rather wet, concluded I would give it up 
till the next morning. And what do you think 
those scamps did ? Tom, though I gave it to him 
well, wouldn't own up to a thing, and just said 
' it was too bad such robberies went on in a ship 
like that ;' he was very sorry for me, and alluded 
to the fact that the door being unlocked was 
proof that the thief had a skeleton key, and all 
that nonsense. Next morning Autie met me, and 
asked what on earth I had been about the night 
before. Such a fracas, all the people had come 
out to look up the matter, and there I was pound- 
ing at a young lady's door, a friend of Libbie's, 
and a girl I liked (indeed, I had taken quite a 
shine to her). They made out — those shameless 
rogues, and very solemn Autie was about it, too 
• — that it was not a very fine thing for my reputa- 
tion to be pounding on a young lady's door late 
at night, frightening her half to death, and oblig- 
ing her to defend herself with a pitcher of water. 
She thought I had been trying to break in her 
door, and I had better go to her at once and apol- 
ogize, as the whole party were being compromised 
by such scandal. They failed there ; for I knew 
I was not at her door, and I knew who it was that 
threw the water on me. I was bound to try and 
get even with them, so one morning, while they 
were all at breakfast, I went to Autie's stateroom; 



294 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Eliza was making up the bed. I looked for 
Autie's pocket-book, and found it under the pil- 
low. I kept out of the way and did not come 
near them for some days ; but they got desperate 
and were determined to beat me, so they made 
it up that Tommy was to get round me, seize 
me by my arms at the back, and Autie go through 
my pockets. Well, they left me without a dime, 
and I had to travel without paying, and those out- 
laws of boys got the clerk to come to me and 
demand my ticket. I told him I had none, that I 
had been robbed. He said he was sorry, but I 
would have to pay over again, as some one who 
stole the ticket would be likely to use it. I tried 
to tell him I would make it right before I left the 
boat, but I hadn't a penny then. Well, daughter, 
I came out best at the last, for Autie, having 
really all the money, though he wouldn't own up 
to it, had aH the bills to pay, and when I got home 
I was so much the gainer, for it did not cost me 
anything from the time I left the boat, either, till 
we got home, and then Autie gave me up my 
pocket-book with all the money, and we all had a 
good laugh, while the boys told their mother of 
the pranks they had played on me." 

My father's story ceases without doing justice to 
himself ; for the cunning manner in which he cir- 
cumvented those mischievous fellows, I remember, 



- ' ft 'll f l' VWHJ'f l 'I II Wflfllipi li ll l Wy.^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^ 




STAND THKRE, COWARDS, WILL V 



OU, A.ND SLi., AN OLD MAN ROBBED; 



296 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



and it seems my husband had given a full account 
to our friend the Hon. Harry Conant. He writes 
to me, what is very true, that " it seems one must 
know the quaint and brave old man, to appreciate 
how exquisitely funny the incident, as told by 
the General, really was. The third day after the 
robbery, the General and Tom, thinking their 
father engaged at a remote part of the boat, while 
talking over their escapade incautiously exhibited 
the pocket-book. Suddenly the hand that held it 
was seized in the strong grasp of the wronged 
father, who, lustily calling for aid, assured the 
passengers that were thronging up (and, being 
strangers, knew nothing of the relationship of the 
parties) that this purse was his, and that he had 
been robbed by these two scoundrels, and if they 
would assist in securing their arrest and restoring 
the purse, he would prove all he said. Seeing the 
crowd hesitate, he called out. For shame ! stand 
there, cowards, will you, and see an old man 
robbed ?" It was enough. The spectators rushed 
in, and the General was outwitted by his artful 
parent and obliged to explain the situation. But 
the consequent restoration of his property did not 
give him half the satisfaction that it did to turn 
the tables on the boys. Though they never ac- 
knowledged this robbery to their father, none were 
so proud of his victory as Tom and the General," 



TURNING THE TABLES. 20 7 

I must not leave to the imagination of the Hteral- 
minded people who may chance to read, the 
suspicion that my husband and Tom ever made 
their father in the least unhappy by their incessant 
joking. He met them half-way always, and I 
never knew them lack in reverence for his snowy 
head. He was wont to speak of his Texas life 
with his sons as his happiest year for many pre- 
ceding, and used to say that, were it not for our 
mother's constantly increasing feebleness, he 
would go out to them in Kansas. 

When he reached his own ground, he made Tom 
and the General pay for some of their plots and 
plans to render him uncomfortable, by coming to 
the foot of the stairs and roaring out (and he had 
a stentorian voice) that they had better be getting 
up, as it was late. Father Custer thought 6 o'clock 
A. M. was late. His sons differed. As soon as 
they found the clamor was to continue, assisted 
by the dogs, which he had released from the stable, 
leaping up-stairs and springing on our beds in ex- 
citement, they went to the head of the stairs, and 
shouted out for everything that the traveler calls 
for in a hotel— hot water, boot-black, cock-tail, bar- 
ber, and none of these being forthcoming in the 
simple home, they vociferated, in what the out- 
sider might have thought angry voices, "What 
sort of hotel do you keep, any way ? " 



2gS 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Father Custer had an answer for every question, 
and only by talking so fast and loud that they 
talked him down did they get the better of him. 
Our mother Custer almost invariably sided with 
her boys. It made no sort of difference if father 
Custer stood alone, he never seemed to expect a 
champion. He did seem to think she was carrying 
her views to an advanced point, when she endeav- 
ored to decline a new cur that he had introduced 
into the house, on the strength of its having " no 
pedigree." Her sons talked dog to her so much 
that one would be very apt to be educated up to 
the demand for an authenticated grandfather. 
Besides, the " Towsers " and "Rovers" and all 
that sort of mongrels, to which she had patiently 
submitted in all the childhood of her boys and 
their boyish father, entitled her to some choice in 
after years. 

At Cairo our partings began, for there some of 
the staff left us for their homes. We dreaded to 
give them up. Our harmonious life, and the 
friendships welded by the sharing of hardships 
and dangers, made us feel that it would be well 
if, having tested one another, we might go on in 
our future together. At Detroit the rest of our 
military family disbanded. How the General re- 
gretted them ! The men, scarce more than boys 
even then, had responded to every call to charge 



LEA VE- TAKINGS. 



299 



in his Michigan brigade, and afterward in the Third 
Cavalry Division. Some, wounded almost to death, 
had been carried from his side on the battle-field, 
as he feared, forever, and had returned with 
wounds still unhealed. One of those valiant men 
has just died, suffering all these twenty-three years, 
from his wound ; but in writing, speaking in pub- 
lic when he could, talking to those who surrounded 
him when he was too weak to do more, one name 
ran through his whole anguished life, one hero 
hallowed his days, and that was his " boy general." 
Another — oh what a brave boy he was ! — took my 
husband's proffered aid, and received an appoint- 
ment in the regular army. He carried always, 
does now, a shattered arm, torn by a bullet while 
he was riding beside General Custer in Virginia. 
That did not keep him from giving his splendid 
energy, his best and truest patriotism, to his coun- 
try down in Texas even after the war, for he rode 
on long, exhausting campaigns after the Indians, 
his, wound bleeding, his life sapped, his vitality 
slipping away with the pain that never left him 
day or night. That summer when we were at 
home in Monroe, the General sent for him to come 
to us, and get his share of the pretty girls that 
Tom and the Michigan staff, who lived near us, 
were appropriating. The handsome, dark-haired 
fellow carried off the favors ; for though the oth- 



■700 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ers had been wounded — Tom even then bearing" 
the scarlet spot on his cheek where the bullet had 
penetrated — the last comer won, for he still wore 
his arm in a sling. The bewitching girls had be- 
fore them the evidence of his valor, and into what 
a garden he stepped ! He was a modest fellow, 
and would not demand too much pity, but made 
light of his wound, as is the custom of soldiers, 
who, dreading effeminacy, carry the matter too 
far, and ignore what ought not to be looked upon 
slightingly. One day he appeared without his 
sling, and a careless girl, dancing with him, 
grasped the arm in the forgetfulness of glee. The 
waves of torture that swept over the young hero's 
face, the alarm and pity of the girl, the instant 
biting of the lip and quick smile of the man, 
dreading more to grieve the pretty creature by 
him than to endure the physical agony — oh, how 
proud the General was of him, and I think he 
felt badly, that a soldier cannot yield to impulse, 
and enfold his comrade in his arms, as is our 
woman's sweet privilege with one another. 

Proudly the General followed the career of 
those young fellows who had been so near him in 
his war-life. Of all those in whom he continued 
always to retain an interest, keeping up in some 
instances a desultory correspondence, the most 
amazing evolution was that of the provost marshal 



A METAMORPHOSED SOLDIER. 



301 



into a Methodist minister. Whether he was at 
heart a stern, unrelenting- character, is a question 
I doubted, for he never could have developed into 
a clergyman. But he had the strangest, most im- 
placable face, when sent on his thankless duty by 
his commanding officer. He it was who conducted 
the ceremonies that one awful day in Louisiana, 
when the execution and pardon took place. I 
remember the General's amazement when he re- 
ceived the letter in which the announcement of the 
new life-work was made. It took us both some 
time to realize how he would set about evan- 
gelizing. It was difficult to imagine him leading 
any one to the throne of grace, except at the point 
of the bayonet, with a military band playing the 
Dead March in Saul. I know how pleased my 
husband was, though, how proud and glad to 
know that a splendid, brave soldier had given 
his talents, his courage — and oh, what courage, 
for a man of the world to come out in youth on 
the side of one mighty Captain! — and taken up the 
life of poverty, self-denial, and something else that 
the General also felt a deprivation, the roving life 
that deprives a Methodist minister of the blessings 
of a permanent home. 

The delightful letters we used to get from our 
military family when any epoch occurred in their 
lives, like the choice of a profession or business 



302 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

(for most of them went back to civil life), their 
marriage, the birth of a son — all gave my hus- 
band genuine pleasure ; and when their sorrows 
came he turned to me to write the letter — a heart- 
letter, which was his in all but the manipulation 
of the pen. His personal influence he gave, time 
and time again, when it was needed in their 
lives, and, best of all in my eyes, had patience 
with those who had a larger sowing of the wild- 
oat crop, which is the agricultural feature in the 
early life of most men. 

Since I seek to make my story of others, I take 
the privilege of speaking of a class of heroes 
that I now seldom hear mentioned, and over whom, 
in instances of my husband's personal friends, 
we have grieved together. It is to those who, 
like his young staff-officer, bear unhealed and 
painful wounds to their life's end, that I wish 
to beg our people to give thought. We felt it 
rather a blessing, in one way, when a man was 
visibly maimed ; for if a leg or an arm is gone, the 
empty sleeve or the halting gait keeps his 
country from forgetting that he has braved every- 
thing to protect her. The men we sorrowed for 
were those who suffered silently ; and there are 
more, North and South, than anyone dreams of, 
scattered all over our now fair and prosperous 
land. Sometimes, after they die, it transpires that 



FORTITUDE IN SUFFERING. 3O3 

at the approach of every storm they have been 
obHged to stop work, enter into the seclusion of 
their rooms, and endure the racking, torturing- 
pain, that began on the battle-field so long ago. 
If anyone finds this out in their life-time, it is 
usually by accident ; and when asked why they 
suffer without claiming the sympathy that does 
help us all, they sometimes reply that the war is 
too far back to tax anyone's memory or sympathy 
now. Oftener, they attempt to ignore what 
they endure, and change the subject in- 
stantly. People would be surprised to know 
how many in the community, whom they 
daily touch in the jostle of life, are silent sufferers 
from wounds or incurable disease contracted 
during the war for the Union. The monuments, 
tablets, memorials, which are strewn with flowers 
and bathed with grateful tears, have often tribute 
that should be partly given to the double hero 
who bears on his bruised and broken body the 
torture of daily sacrifice for his country. People, 
even if they know, forget the look, the word of 
acknowledgment, that is due the maimed patriot. 
I recall the chagrin I felt on the Plains one day, 
when one of our Seventh Cavalry officers, with 
whom we had long been intimately associated — 
one whom our people called " Fresh Smith," or 
" Smithie," for short — came to his wife to get her 



;o4 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



to put on his coat. I said something in bantering 
tones of his Plains Hfe making him look on his 
wife as the Indian looks upon the squaw, and tried 
to rouse her to rebellion. There was a small blaze, 
a sudden scintillation from a pair of feminine eyes, 
that warned me of wrath to come. The captain 
accepted my banter, threw himself into the sad- 
dle, laughed back the advantage of this new order 
of things, where a man had a combination, in his 
wife, of servant and companion, and tore out of 
sight, leaving me to settle accounts with the 
flushed madame. She told me, what I never knew, 
and perhaps might not even now, but for the out- 
burst of the moment, that in the war " Smithie " 
had received a wound that shattered his shoulder, 
and though his arm was narrowly saved from 
amputation, he never raised it again, except a few 
inches. As for putting on his coat, it was an im- 
possibility. 

One day in New York my husband and I were 
paying our usual homage to the shop windows 
and to the beautiful women we passed, when he 
suddenly seized my arm and said, "There's Kid- 
doo ! Let's catch up with him." I was skipped 
over gutters, and sped over pavements, the Gen- 
eral unconscious that such a gait is not the usual 
movement of the New Yorker, until we came up 
panting each side of a tail, fine-looking man, ap- 



A FIRESIDE CONFESSION. 



505 



parently a specimen of physical perfection. The 
look of longing that he gave us as we ran up, 
flushed and happy, startled me, and I could 
scarcely wait until we separated to know the 
meaning. It was this : General Joseph B. Kid- 
doo, shot in the leg during the war, had still the 
open wound, from which he endured daily pain 
and nightly torture, for he got only fragmentary 
sleep. To heal the hurt was to end his life, the 
surgeons said. When at last I heard he had been 
given release and slept the blessed sleep, what 
word of sorrow could be framed ? 

In the case of another friend, with whom we 
were staying in Tennessee, from whom my hus- 
band and I extracted the information by dint of 
questions and sympathy, when, late one night, 
we sat about the open fire and were warmed into 
confidence by its friendly glow, we found that no 
single night for the twelve years after the war had 
such a boon as uninterrupted sleep been known to 
him. A body racked by pain was paying daily its 
loyal, uncomplaining tribute to his country. Few 
were aware that he had unremitting suffering as 
his constant companion. I remember that my 
husband urged him to marry, and get some good 
out of life, and from the sympathy that wells per- 
petually in a tender woman's heart. But he denied 
himself the blessing of such compa-nionship, from 



306 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

unselfish motives, declaring he could not ask a 
woman to link her fate with such a broken life as 
his. When we left his fireside, my husband 
counted him a hero of such rare metal that few in 
his experience could equal him, and years after- 
ward, when we sometimes read his name in print, 

he said, " Poor , I wonder if there's any 

let-up for the brave fellow." 

Our home-coming was a great pleasure to us 
and to our two families. My own father was proud 
of the General's administration of civil as well as 
military affairs in Texas, and enjoyed the congratu- 
latory letter of Governor Hamilton deeply. 
The temptations to induce General Custer to leave 
the service and enter civil life began at once, and 
were many and varied. He had not been sub- 
jected to such allurements the year after the war, 
when the country was offering posts of honor to 
returned soldiers, but this summer of our return 
from Texas, all sorts of suggestions were made. 
Business propositions, with enticing pictures of 
great wealth, came to him. He never cared for 
money for money's sake. No one that does, ever 
lets it slip through his fingers as he did. Still, his 
heart was set upon plans for his mother and father, 
and for his brothers' future, and I can scarcely see 
now how a man of twenty-five could have turned 
his back upon such alluring schemes for wealth as 



OFFERS FOR A FUTURE. 307 

were held out to him. It was at that time much 
more customary than now, even, to establish cor- 
porations with an officer's name at the head who 
was known to have come through the war with 
irreproachable honor, proved possibly as much by 
his being as poor when he came out of service as 
when he went in, as by his conduct in battle. The 
country was so unsettled by the four years of 
strife that it was like beginning all over again, 
when old companies were started anew. Con- 
fidence had to be struggled for, and names of 
prominent men as associate partners or presidents 
were sought for persistently. 

Politics offered another form of temptation. 
The people demanded for their representatives 
the soldiers under whom they had served, prefer- 
ring to follow the same leaders in the political 
field that had led them in battle. The old sol- 
diers, and civilians also, talked openly of General 
Custer for Congressman or Governor. It was a 
summer of excitement and uncertainty. How 
could it be otherwise to a boy who, five brief 
year before, was a beardless youth with no appar- 
ent future before him ? I was too much of a girl 
to realize what a summer it was. Indeed, we 
had little chance, so fast did one proposition for 
our future follow upon the other. When the 
General was offered the appointment of foreign 



^o8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Minister, I kept silence as best I could, but it was 
desperately hard work. Honors, according to 
old saws, " were empty," but in that hey-day 
time they looked very different to me. I was 
inwardly very proud, and if I concealed the fact 
because my husband expressed such horror of 
inflated people, it was only after violent effort. 

Among the first propositions was one for the Gen- 
eral to take temporary service with Mexico. This 
scheme found no favor with me. It meant more 
fighting and further danger for my husband, and 
anxiety and separation for me. Besides, Texas 
association with Mexicans made me think their 
soldiery treacherous and unreliable. But even in 
the midst of the suspense pending the decision I 
was not insensible to this new honor that was 
offered. 

Carvajal. who was then at the head of the 
Juarez military government, offered the post 
of Adjutant-General of Mexico to General Cus- 
ter. The money inducements were, to give twice 
the salary in gold that a major-general in our 
army receives. As his salary had come down 
from a major-general's pay of $8,000 to $2,000, 
this might have been a temptation surely. ,There 
was a stipulation, that one or two thousand men 
should be raised in the United States ; any debts 
assumed in organizing this force to be paid by 



A COMAIENDATORY LETTER. 3O9 

the Mexican Liberal Government. Senor 
Romero, the Mexican Minister, did what he could 
to further the application of Carvajal, and 
General Grant wrote his approval of General 
Custer's acceptance, in a letter in which he speaks 
of my husband in unusually flattering terms, as 
one " who rendered such distinguished service as 
a cavalry officer during the war," adding, ''There 
was no officer in that branch of the service who 
had the confidence of General Sheridan to a 
greater degree than General Custer, and there is 
no officer in whose judgment I have greater faith 
than in Sheridan's. Please understand, then, that 
I mean to endorse General Custer in a high de- 
gree." 

The stagnation of peace was being felt by 
those who had lived a breathless four years at the 
front. However much they might rejoice that 
carnage had ceased and no more broken hearts 
need be dreaded, it was very hard to quiet them- 
selves into a life of inaction. No wonder our 
officers went to the Khedive for service ! no won- 
der this promise of active duty was an inviting 
prospect for my husband ! It took a long time 
for civilians even, to tone themselves down to the 
jog-trot of peace. 

Everything looked, at that time, as if there was 
success awaiting any soldier who was resolute 



3IO TENT/NG ON' TUB PLAIN'S. 

enough to lead troops against one they considered 
an invader. Nothing nerves a soldier's arm like 
the wrong felt at the presence of foreigners on 
their own ground, and the prospect of destruction 
of their homes. Maximilian was then uncertain 
in his hold on the Government he had established, 
and, as it soon proved, it would have been what 
General Custer then thought comparatively an 
easy matter to drive out the usurper. The ques- 
tion was settled by the Government's refusing to 
grant the year's leave for which application was 
made, and the General was too fond of his coun- 
try to take any but temporary service in another. 
This decision made me very grateful, and when 
there was no longer danger of further exposure of 
life, I was also thankful for the expressions of 
confidence and admiration of my husband's ability 
as a soldier that this contemplated move had 
drawn out. I was willing my husband should 
accept any offer he had received except the last. 
I was tempted to beg him to resign ; for this 
meant peace of mind and a long, tranquil life for 
me. It was my father's counsel alone, that kept 
me from urging each new proposition to take up 
the life of a civilian. He advised me to forget 
myself. He knew well what a difficult task it was 
to school myself to endure the life on which I had 
entered so thoughtlessly as a girl. I had never 



FA THERL Y COUNSEL. 3 I I 

been thrown with army people, and knew nothing 
before my marriage of the separations and anxie- 
ties of miHtary Ufe. Indeed, I was so young that it 
never occurred to me that people could become so 
attached to each other that it would be misery to 
be separated. And now that this divided exist- 
ence loomed up before me, father did not blame 
me for longing for any life that would ensure our 
being together. He had a keen sense of humor, 
and could not help reminding me occasionally, 
when I told him despairingly that I could not, I 
simply would nQ)\,, live a life where I could not be 
always with my husband, of days before I knew 
the General, when I declared to my parents, if 
ever I did marry it would not be a dentist, as our 
opposite neighbor appeared never to leave the 
house. It seemed to me then that the wife had a 
great deal to endure in the constant presence of 
her husband. 

My father, strict in his sense of duty, constant- 
ly appealed to me to consider only my husband's 
interests, and forget my own selfish desires. In 
an old letter written at that time, I quoted to the 
General something that father had said to me : 
" Why, daughter, I would rather have the honor 
which grows out of the way in which the battle of 
Waynesboro was fought, than to have the wealth 
of the Indies. Armstrong's battle is better to hand 



3 I 2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

down to posterity than wealth." He used in those 
days to walk the floor and say to me, " My child, 
put no obstacles in the way to the fulfillment of 
his destiny. He chose his profession. He is a 
born soldier. There he must abide." 

In the midst of this indecision, when the Gen- 
eral was obliged to be in New York and Washing- 
ton on business, my father was taken ill. The 
one whom I so sorely needed in all those ten 
years that followed, when I was often alone in the 
midst of the dangers and anxieties and vicissi- 
tudes attending our life, stepped into heaven as 
quietly and peacefully as if going into another 
room. His last words were to urge me to do my 
duty as a soldier's wife. He again begged me to 
ignore self, and remember that my husband 
had chosen the profession of a soldier ; in that life 
he had made a name, and there, where he was so 
eminently fitted to succeed, he should remain. 

My father's counsel and his dying words had 
great weight with me, and enabled me to fight 
against the selfishness that was such a temptation. 
Very few women, even the most ambitious for 
their husbands' future, but would have confessed, 
at the close of the war, that glory came with too 
great sacrifices, and they would rather gather the 
husbands, lovers and brothers into the shelter of 
the humblest of homes, than endure the suspense 



AN OFFICER'S WORD HIS NOTE. w* 

and loneliness of war-times. I am sure that my fa- 
ther was right, for over and over again, in after 
years, my husband met his brother officers who had 
resigned, only to have poured into his ear regrets 
that they had left the service. I have known him 
come to me often, saying he could not be too 
thankful that he had not gone into civil life. He 
believed that a business man or a politician should 
have discipline in youth for the life and varied ex- 
perience with all kinds of people, to make a suc- 
cessful career. Officers, from the very nature of 
their life, are prescribed in their associates. They 
are isolated so much at extreme posts that they 
know little or nothing of the life of citizens. After 
resigning, they found themselves robbed of the 
companionship so dear to military people, unable, 
from want of early training, to cope successfully 
with business men, and lacking, from inexperience, 
the untiring, plodding spirit that is requisite to 
the success of a civilian. An officer rarely gives 
a note; his promise is his bond. It is seldom vio- 
lated. It would be impossible for me, even in my 
twelve years' experience, to enumerate the times I 
have known, when long-standing debts, for which 
there was not a scrap of written proof, were paid 
without solicitation on the part of the friend who 
was the creditor. One of our New York hotels 
furnishes proof of how an officer's word is con- 



3 1 4 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

sidered. A few years since, Congress failed to 
make the usual yearly appropriation for the pay 
of the army. A hotel that had been for many 
years the resort of military people, immediately 
sent far and wide to notify the army that no bills 
would be presented until the next Congress had 
passed the appropriation. To satisfy myself, I 
have inquired if they lost by this, and been assured 
that they did not. 

Men reared to consider their word equal to the 
most binding legal contract ever made, would 
naturally find it difficult to realize, when entering 
civil life, that something else is considered neces- 
sary. The wary take advantage of the credulity 
of a military man, and, usually, the first experience 
is financial loss, to an officer who has confidingly 
allowed a debt to be contracted without all the 
restrictive legal arrangements with which citizens 
have found it necessary to surround money trans- 
actions. And so the world goes. The capital with 
which an officer enters into business, is lost by too 
much confidence in his brother man, and when he 
becomes richer by experience, he is so poor in 
pocket he cannot venture into competition with 
the trained and skilled business men among whom 
he had entered so sanguinely. 

Politics also have often proved disastrous to 
army officers. Allured by promises, they have 



AMBITIONS DISAPPOINTED. 3 I 5 

accepted office, and been allowed a brief success ; 
but who can be more completely done for than an 
office-holder whose party goes out of power ? The 
born politician, one who has grown wary in the 
great game, provides for the season of temporary 
retirement which the superseding of his party 
necessitates. His antagonist calls it " feathering 
his nest," but a free-handed and sanguine military 
man has done no " feathering," and it is simply 
pitiful to see to what obscurity and absolute pov- 
erty they are brought. The men whose chestnuts 
the ingenuous, unsuspecting man has pulled out 
of the fire, now pass him by unnoticed. Such an 
existence to a proud man makes him wish he had 
died on the field of battle, before any act of his 
has brought chagrin. 

All these things I have heard my husband say, 
when we have encountered some heart-broken 
man ; and he worked for nothing harder than that 
they might be reinstated in the service, or lifted 
out of their perplexities by occupation of some 
sort. There was an officer, a classmate at West 
Point, who, he felt with all his heart, did right in 
resigning. If he had lived he would have written 
his tribute, and I venture to take up his pen to say, 
in my inadequate way, what he would have said 
so well, moved by the eloquence of deep feeling. 

My husband believed in what old-fashioned 



3 I 6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

people term a "calling," and he himself had felt a 
call to be a soldier, when he could scarcely toddle. 
It was not the usual early love of boys for adven- 
ture. We realize how natural it is for a lad to 
enjoy tales of hotly contested fields, and to glory 
over bloodshed. The boy in the Sunday-school, 
when asked what part of the Bible he best liked, 
said promptly, "The fightenest part !" and another, 
when his saintly teacher questioned him as to 
whom he first wished to see when he reached 
heaven, vociferated loudly, " Goliath !" But the 
love of a soldier's life was not the fleeting desire 
of the child, in my husband; it became the steady 
purpose of his youth, the happy realization of his 
early manhood. For this reason he sympathized 
with all who felt themselves drawn to a certain 
place in the world. He thoroughly believed in a 
boy (if it was not a pernicious choice) having 
his "bent." And so it happened, when it was 
our good fortune to be stationed with his class- 
mate, Colonel Charles C. Parsons, at Leavenworth, 
that he gave a ready ear when his old West Point 
chum poured out his longings for a different sphere 
in life. He used to come to me after these ses- 
sions, when the Colonel went over and over again 
his reasons for resigning, and wonder how he 
could wish to do so, but he respected his friend's 
belief, that he had another " calling " too thor- 



FRIENDS IN COUNCIL. 



'7 



oughly to oppose him. He thought the place of 
captain of a battery of artillery the most inde- 
pendent in the service. He is detached from his 
regiment, he reports only to the commanding 
officer of the post, he is left so long at one station 
that he can make permanent arrangements for com- 
fort, and, except in times of war, the work is gar- 
rison and guard duty. Besides this, the pay of a 
'captain of a battery is good, and he is not subject 
to constant moves, which tax the finances of a 
cavalry officer so severely. After enumerating 
these advantages, he ended by saying, "There's 
nothing to be done, though, for if Parsons thinks 
he ought to go into an uncertainty, and leave what 
is a surety for life, why, he ought to follow his 
convictions." 

The next time we saw the Colonel, he was the 
rector of a small mission church on the outskirts 
of Memphis. We were with the party of the 
Grand Duke Alexis when he went by steamer to 
New Orleans. General Sheridan had asked Gen- 
eral Custer to go on a buffalo-hunt with the Duke 
in the Territory of Wyoming, and he in turn 
urged the General to remain with him afterward, 
until he left the country. At Memphis, the city 
gave a ball, and my husband begged his old com- 
rade to be present. It was the first time since his 
resignation that the Colonel and his beautiful 



3l8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

wife had been in society. Their parish was poor, 
and they had only a small and uncertain salary. 
Colonel Parsons was not in the least daunted ; he 
was as hopeful and as enthusiastic as such earnest 
people alone can be, as certain he was right as if 
his duty had been revealed to him, as divine mes- 
sages were to the prophets of old. The General 
was touched by the fearless manner in which he 
faced poverty and obscurity. 

It would be necessary for one to know, by 
actual observation, what a position of authority, 
of independence, of assured and sufficient income, 
he left, to sink his individuality in this life that he 
consecrated to his Master. When he entered our 
room, before we went to the ballroom, he held 
up his gloved hands to us and said : " Custer, I 
wish you to realize into what extravagance you 
have plunged me. Why, old fellow, this is my first 
indulgence in such frivolities since I came down 
here." Mrs. Parsons was a marvel to us. The 
General had no words that he thought high 
enough praise for her sacrifice. Hers was for her 
husband, and not a complaint did she utter. 

Here, again, I should have to take my citizen 
reader into garrison before I could make clear 
what it was that she gave up. The vision of that 
pretty woman, as I remember her at Leaven- 
worth, is fresh in my mind. She danced and 



A WIFE'S SACRIFICE. 



319 



rode charming-ly, and was gracious and free from 
the spiteful envy that sometimes comes when a 
garrison belle is so attractive that the gossips say 
she absorbs all the devotion. Colonel Parsons, 
not caring much for dancing, used to stand and 
watch with pride and complete confidence when 
the men gathered round his wife at our hops. 
There were usually more than twice as many men 
as women, and the card of a good dancer and a 
favorite was frequently filled before she left her 
own house for the dancing-room. I find myself 
still wondering how any pretty woman ever kept 
her mental poise when queening it at those 
Western posts. My husband, who never failed 
to be the first to notice the least sacrifice that a 
woman made for her husband, looked upon Mrs. 
Parsons with more and more surprise and admi- 
ration, as he contrasted the life in which we found 
her, with her former fascinating existence. 

The Colonel, after making his concession and 
.coming to our ball, asked us in turn to be present 
at his church on the following Sunday, and gave 
the General a little cheap printed card, which he 
used to find his way to the suburbs of the city. 
Colonel Parsons told me, next day, that when he 
entered the reading-desk and looked down upon 
the dignified, reverent head of my husband, a 
remembrance of the last time he had seen him in 



320 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the chapel at West Point, came like a flash of light- 
ning into his mind, and he almost had a convul- 
sion, in endeavoring to suppress the gurgles of 
laughter that struggled for expression. For an 
instant he thought, with desperate fright, that he 
would drop down behind the desk and have it out, 
and only by the most powerful effort did he rally. 
It seems that a cadet in their corps had fiery red 
hair, and during the stupid chapel sermon Cadet 
Custer had run his fingers into the boy's hair, who 
was in front of him, pretending to get them into 
white heat, and then, taking them out, pounded 
them as on an anvil. It was a simple thing, and a 
trick dating many years back, but the drollery and 
quickness of action made it something a man 
could not recall with calmness. 

Colonel Parsons and his wife are receiving the 
rewards that only Heaven can give to lives of 
self-sacrifice. Mrs. Parsons, after they came 
North to a parish, only lived a short time to en- 
joy the comfort of an Eastern home. When the 
yellow fever raged so in the Mississippi Valley, in 
1878, and volunteers came forward with all the 
splendid generosity of this part of the world, 
Colonel Parsons did not wait a second call from 
his conscience to enter the fever-scourged Mem- 
phis, and there he ended a martyr life : not only 
ready to go because in his Master's service, but 



A MARTYR'S REWARD. 



because the best of his Hfe, and one for whom 
he continually sorrowed, awaited him beyond the 
confines of eternity. 



CHAPTER XL 

RECEPTION BY THE WAR VETERANS OF THEIR BOY GEN- 
ERAL APPOINTED LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OF THE 

SEVENTH CAVALRY A RAID AFTER A PRETTY GIRL 

OUR FAMILY OF HORSES AND DOGS ORDERS TO 

REPORT AT FORT RILEY, KANSAS JOLLIFICATIONS 

AT ST. LOUIS FRIENDSHIP FOR LAWRENCE BAR- 
RETT. 

/^ENERAL CUSTER was the recipient of 
much kindness from the soldiers of his 
Michigan brigade while he remained in Michigan 
awaiting orders, and he went to several towns 
where his old comrades had prepared receptions 
for him. But when he returned from a re-union 
in Detroit to our saddened home, there was no 
grateful, proud father to listen to the accounts of 
the soldiers' enthusiasm. My husband missed his 
commendation, and his proud way of referring to 
his son. His own family were near us, and off he 
started, when he felt the absence of the noble 
parent who had so proudly followed his career, 
and, running through our stable to shorten the 
distance, danced up a lane through a back gate 



A SOLDIER'S NAMESAKES. 323 

into his mother's garden, and thence into the 
midst of his father's noisy and happy household. 
His parents, the younger brother, Boston, sister 
Margaret, Colonel Tom, and often Eliza, made up 
the family, and the uproar that these boys and 
the elder boy, their father, made around the 
gentle mother and her daughters, was a marvel 
to me. 

If the General went away to some soldiers' 
re-union, he tried on his return to give me a lucid 
account of the ceremonies, and how signally he 
failed in making a speech, of course, and his sub- 
terfuge for hiding his confusion and getting out 
of the scrape by proposing " Garryowen " by the 
band, or three cheers for the old brigade. It was 
not that he had not enough to say : his heart was 
full of gratitude to his comrades, but the words 
came forth with such a rush, there was little 
chance of arriving at the meaning. I think 
nothing moved him in this coming together of 
his dear soldiers, like his pride at their naming 
babies after him. His eyes danced with pleasure, 
when he told that they stopped him in the street 
and held up a little George Armstrong Custer, 
and the shy wife was brought forward to be con- 
gratulated. I dearly loved, when I chanced to be 
with him, to witness their pride and hear their 
few words of praise. 



324 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Not long ago I was in a small town in Michi- 
gan, among some of my husband's old soldiers. 
Our sister Margaret was reciting for the benefit of 
the Uttle church, and the veterans asked for me 
afterward, and I shook hands with a long line of 
bronzed heroes, now tillers of the soil. Their 
praise of their " boy General " made my grateful 
tears flow, and many of their eyes moistened as 
they held my hand and spoke of war-times. After 
all had filed by, they began to return one by one 
and ask to bring their wives and children. One 
soldier, with already silvering head, said quaintly, 
" We have often seen you rding around with our 
General in war-days " and added, with a most 
flattering ignoring of time's treatment of me, 
" You XooVJMst the same, though you was a young 
gal then ; and now, tho' you followed your hus- 
band and took your hardships with us, I want to 
show you an old woman who was also a purty 
good soldier, for while I was away at the front 
she run the farm." Such a welcome, such honest 
tribute to his " old woman," recalled the times 
when the General's old soldiers gathered about 
him, with unaffected words, and when I pitied 
him because he fidgeted so, and bit his lips, and 
struggled to end what was the joy of his life, for 
fear he would cry like a woman. Among those 
who souofht him out that summer was an officer 



Q 



A ROY'S HERO WORSHIP. 



o^:) 



who had commanded a regiment of troops in the 
celebrated Michigan brigade. Colonel George^ 
Grey, a brave Irishman, with as much enthusiasm 
in his friendships as in his fighting. His wife and 
little son were introduced. The boy had very 
light hair, and though taught to reverence and love 
the General by his gallant, impulsive father, the 
child had never realized until he saw him that his 
father's hero also had a yellow head. Heretofore 
the boy had hated his hair, and implored his 
mother to dye it dark. But as soon as his inter- 
view with my husband was ended, he ran to his 
mother, and whispered in eager haste that she 
need not mind the dyeing now ; he never would 
scold about his hair being light again, since he 
had seen that General Custer's was yellow. 

As I look back and consider what a descent the 
major-generals of the war made, on returning to 
their lineal rank in the regular army after the sur- 
render at Appomattox, I wonder how they took 
the new order of things so calmly, or that they 
so readily adapted themselves to the positions 
they had filled before the firing on Sumter in 
1861. General Custer held his commission as 
brevet major-general for nearly a year after the 
close of hostilities, and until relieved in Texas. 
He did not go at once to his regiment, the Fifth 
Cavalry, and take up the command of sixty men 



326 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

in place of thousands, as other officers of the 
regular army were obliged to do, but was placed 
on waiting orders, and recommended to the lieu- 
tenant-colonelcy of one of the new regiments of 
cavalry, for five new ones had been formed that 
summer, making ten in all. In the autumn, the 
appointment to the Seventh Cavalry came, with 
orders to go to Fort Garland. One would have 
imagined, by the jubilant manner in which this 
official document was unfolded and read to me, 
that it was the inheritance of a principality. My 
husband instantly began to go over the " good 
sides " of the question. He was so given to 
dwelling on the high lights of any picture his im- 
agination painted, that the background, which 
might mean hardships and deprivations, became 
indefinite in outline, and obscure enough in detail 
to please the most modern impressionists. Out 
of our camp luggage a map was produced, and 
Fort Garland was discovered, after long prowling 
about with the first finger, in the space given to 
the Rocky Mountains. Then he launched into 
visions of what unspeakable pleasure he would 
have, fishing for mountain trout and hunting 
deer. As I cared nothing for fishing, and was 
afraid of a gun, I don't recall my veins bounding 
as his did over the prospect ; but the embryo fish- 
erman and Nimrod was so sanguine over his- 



A MOUNTAIN POST. 



127 



future, it would have been a stolid soul indeed 
that did not begin to think Fort Garland a sort 
of earthly paradise. The sober colors in this 
vivid picture meant a small, obscure post, then 
several hundred miles from any railroad, not 
much more than a handful of men to command, 
the most complete isolation, and no prospect of 
an active campaign, as it was far from the range 
of the war-like Indians. But Fort Garland soon 
faded from our view, in the excitement and inter- 
est over Fort Riley, as soon as our orders were 
changed to that post. We had no difficulty in 
finding it on the map, as it was comparatively an 
old post, and the Kansas Pacific Railroad was 
within ten miles of the Government reservation. 
We ascertained, by inquiry, that it was better to 
buy the necessary household articles at Leaven- 
worth, than to attempt to carry along even a sim- 
ple outfit from the East. My attention had been 
so concentrated on the war, that I found the map 
of Virginia had heretofore comprised the only im- 
portant part of the United States to me, and it 
was difficult to realize that Kansas had a city of 
25,000 inhabitants, with several daily papers. 
Still, I was quite willing to trust to Leavenworth 
for the purchase of household furniture, as it 
seemed to me, what afterward proved true, 
that housekeepmg in garrison quarters was a 



328 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

sort of camping out after all, with one foot in a 
house and another in position to put into the stir- 
rup and spin " over the hills and far away." We 
packed the few traps that had been used in camp- 
ing in Virginia and Texas, but most of our atten- 
tion was given to the selection of a pretty girl, 
who, it was held by both of us, would do more 
toward furnishing and beautifying our army quar- 
ters than any amount of speechless bric-a-brac or 
silent tapestry. It was difficult to obtain what 
seemed the one thing needful for our new army 
home. In the first place, the mothers rose en 
masse and formed themselves into an anti-frontier 
combination. They looked right into my eyes, 
with harassed expression, and said, " Why, Libbie, 
they might marry an officer !" ignoring the fact 
that the happiest girl among them had undergone 
that awful fate, and still laughed back a denial of 
its being the bitterest lot that can come to a 
woman. Then I argued that perhaps their 
daughters might escape matrimony entirely, under 
the fearful circumstances which they shuddered 
over, even in contemplation, but that it was only 
fair that the girls should have a chance to see the 
" bravest and the tenderest," and, I mentally added, 
the " livest " men, for our town had been forsaken 
by most of the ambitious, energetic boys as soon 
as their school-days ended. The " beau season " 



FAILING IN A CAPTURE. 



129 



was very brief, lasting only during their summer 
vacations, when they came from wide-awake 
western towns to make love in sleepy Monroe. 
One mother at last listened to my arguments, and 
said, " I do want Laura to see what men of the 
world are, and she shall go." Now, this lovely 
mother had been almost a second one to me in all 
my lonely vacations, after my own mother died. 
She took me from the seminary, and gave me 
treats with her own children, and has influenced 
my whole life by her noble, large way of looking 
at the world. But, then, she has been East a great 
deal, and in Washington in President Pierce's 
days, and realized that the vision of the outside 
world, seen only from our Monroe, was narrow. 
The dear Laura surprised me by asking to have 
over night to consider, and I could not account 
for it, as she had been so radiant over the prospect 
of military life. Alas ! next morning the riddle 
was solved, when she whispered in my ear that 
there was a youth who had already taken into his 
hands the disposal of her future, and " he " ob- 
jected. So we lost her. 

Monroe was then thought to have more pretty 
girls than any place of its size in the country. 
In my first experience of the misery of being para- 
graphed, it was announced that General Custer had 
taken to himself a wife, in a town where ninety- 



330 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

nine marriageable girls were left. The fame of 
the town had gone abroad, though, and the 
ninety-nine were not without opportunities. 
Widowers came from afar, with avant couriers in 
the shape of letters describing their wealth, their 
scholarly attainments, and their position in the 
community. The "boys" grown to men halted 
in their race for wealth long enough to rush 
home and propose. Often we were all under in- 
spection, and though demure and seemingly un- 
conscious, I remember the after-tea walks when a 
knot of girls went off to " lovers' lane " to ex- 
change experiences about some stranger from 
afar, who had been brought around by a solicit- 
ous match-maker to view the landscape o'er, and 
I am afraid we had some sly little congratulations 
when he, having shown signs of the conquering 
hero, was finally sent on his way, to seek in other 
towns, filled with girls, " fresh woods and past- 
ures new." I cannot account for the beauty of 
the women of Monroe; the mothers were the 
softest, serenest, smoothest-faced women, even 
when white-haired. It is true it was a very quiet 
life, going to bed with the chickens, and up early 
enough to see the dew on the lawns. There was 
very little care, to plant furrows in the cheeks 
and those tell-tale radiating lines about the eyes. 
Nearly everybody was above want, and few had 



SUN-BURN AS A,V ARGUMENT. 331 

enough of this world's goods to incite envy in the 
hearts of the neighbors, which does its share in a 
younger face. I sometimes think the vicinity of 
Lake Erie, and the moist air that blew over the 
marsh, kept the complexions fresh. I used to 
feel actually sorry for my husband, when we ap- 
proached Monroe after coming from the cam- 
paigns. He often said : " Shall we not stop in 
Detroit a day or two, Libbie, till you get the 
tired look out of your face ? I dread going among 
the Monroe women and seeing them cast reproach- 
ful looks at me, when your sun-burned face is in- 
troduced among their fair complexions. When 
you are tired in addition, they seem to think I am 
a wretch unhung, and say, ' Why, General ! what 
have you done with Libbie's transparent skin?' I 
am afraid it is hopelessly dark and irredeemably 
thickened !" In vain I argued that it wouldn't be 
too thick to let them all see the happy light shine 
through, and if his affection survived my altered 
looks, I felt able to endure the wailing over what 
they thought I had lost. After all, it was very 
dear and kind of them to care, and my husband 
appreciated their solicitude, even when he was 
supposed to be in disgrace for having subjected 
me to such disfigurement. Still, these mothers 
were neither going to run the risk of the peach- 
bloom and cream of their precious girls all run- 



^3 2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ning riot into one broad sun-burn up to the roots 
of the hair, and this was another reason, in addi- 
tion to the paramount one that "the girls might 
marry into the army." The vagrant Hfe, the ina- 
bihty to keep household gods, giving up the privi- 
leges of the church and missionary societies, the 
loss of the simple village gayety, the anxiety and 
suspense of a soldier's wife, might well make the 
mothers opposed to the life, but this latter reason 
did not enter into all their minds. Some thought 
of the loaves and fishes. One said, in trying to 
persuade me that it was better to break my engage- 
ment with the General, " Why, girl, you can't be 
a poor man's wife, and, besides, he might lose a 
leg !" I thought, even then, gay and seemingly 
thoughtless as I was, that a short life wuth poverty 
and a wooden leg was better than the career sug- 
gested to me. I hope the dear old lady is not 
blushing as she reads this, and I remind her how 
she took me up into a high mountain and pointed 
out a house that might be mine, with so many 
dozen spoons "solid," so many sheets and pillow- 
slips, closets filled with jars of preserved fruit, all 
of which I could not hope to have in the life in 
which I chose to cast my lot, where peaches 
ripened on no garden-wall and bank-accounts 
were unknown. 

When we were ready to set out for the West, in 



334 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

October, 1866, our caravan summed up some- 
thing- like this list ! My husband's three horses — 
Jack Rucker, the thoroughbred mare he had 
bought in Texas; a blooded colt from Virginia 
named Phil Sheridan ; and my own horse, a fast 
pacer named Custis Lee, the delight of my eyes 
and the envy of the General's staff while we were 
in Virginia and Texas — several hounds given to 
the General by the planters with whom he had 
hunted deer in Texas ; a superb greyhound, the 
most kingly dog I ever saw; the cushion of his 
feet seemed to spring as he stepped, and his head 
was carried so loftily as he walked his lordly way 
among the other dogs, that I thought he would 
have asked to carry his family-tree on his brass 
collar, could he have spoken for his rights. Last 
of all, some one had given us the ugliest white 
bull-dog I ever saw. But in time we came to 
think that the twist in his lumpy tail, the curve in 
his bow legs, the ambitious nose, which drew the 
upper lip above the heaviest of protruding jaws, 
were simply beauties, for the dog was so affec- 
tionate and loyal, that everything which at first 
seemed a draw-back leaned finally to virtue's side. 
He was well named "Turk," and a "set to" or so 
with Byron, the domineering greyhound, estab- 
lished his rights, so that it only needed a deep 
growl and an uprising of the bristles on his back. 



A FAMILY PAR 7 Y. 



to recall to the overbearing aristocrat some whole- 
some lessons given him when the acquaintance 
began. Turk was devoted to the colt Phil, and 
the intimacy of the two was comical ; Phil repaid 
Turk's little playful nips at the legs by lifting him 
in his teeth as high as the feed-box, by the loose 
skin of his back. But nothing could get a whim- 
per out of him, for he was the pluckiest of brutes. 
He curled himself up in Phil's stall when he slept, 
and in traveling was his close companion in the 
box car. If we took the dog to drive with us, he 
had to be in the buggy, as our time otherwise 
would have been constantly engaged in dragging 
him off from any dog that strutted around him, 
and needed a lesson in humility. When Turk 
was returned to Phil, after any separation, they 
greeted each other in a most human way. Turk 
leaped around the colt, and in turn was rubbed 
and nosed about with speaking little snorts of 
welcome. When we came home to this ugly 
duckling, he usually made a spring and landed in 
my lap, as if he were the tiniest, silkiest little Skye 
in dogdom. He half closed his eyes, with that 
beatific expression peculiar to affectionate dogs, 
and did his little smile at my husband and me by 
raising what there was of his upper lip and show- 
ing his front teeth. All this with an ignoring of 
the other dogs and an air of exclusion, as if we 



■5^6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

three — his master, mistress, and himself — com- 
posed all there was of earth worth knowing. 

We had two servants, one being Eliza, our 
faithful colored woman, who had been with us in 
Virginia and Texas, and had come home with me 
to care for my father in his last illness. We had 
also a worthless colored boy, who had been 
trained as a jockey in Texas and had returned 
with the horses. What intellect he had was em- 
ployed in devising schemes to escape work. 
Eliza used her utmost persuasive eloquence on 
him without eff'^.ct, and failed equally with a set 
of invectives, that had been known heretofore to 
break the most stubborn case of lethargy. My 
tender-hearted mother Custer screened him, for 
he had soon discovered her amazing credulity, and 
had made out a story of abuses to which he had 
been subjected that moved her to confide his 
wrongs to me. Two years before, I too would 
have dropped a tear over his history ; but a life 
among horses had enlightened me somewhat. 
Every one knows that a negro will do almost 
anything to become a jockey. Their bitterest 
moment is when they find that growing bone and 
muscle is making avoirdupois and going to cut 
them off from all that makes life worth living. 
To reduce their weight, so they can ride at races, 
they are steamed, and parboiled if necessary. 



A WOMAN'S CREDULITY. 337 



This process our lazy servant described to our 
mother as having been enforced on him as a tor- 
ture and punishment, and such a good story did 
he make out, that he did nothing but he in the 
sun and twang an old banjo all summer long, all 
owing to mother's pity. We had to take him 
with us, to save her from waiting on him, and 
making reparation for what she supposed had 
been a life of abuse before he came to us. 

Last of all to describe in our party was Diana, 
the pretty belle of Monroe. The excitement of 
anticipation gave added brightness to her eyes, 
and the head, sunning over with a hundred curls, 
danced and coquetted as she talked of our future 
among the " brass buttons and epaulets." 

My going out from home was not so hard as it 
had been, for the dear father had gone home, 
saying in his last words, " Daughter, continue to 
do as you have done; follow Armstrong every- 
w^here." It had indeed been a temptation to me, 
to use all my influence to induce my husband to 
resign and accept the places held out to him. I 
do not recollect that ambition or a far look into 
his progress in the future entered my mind. I 
can only remember thinking with envy of men 
surrounding us in civil life, who came home to 
their wives after every day's business. Even 
now, I look upon a laborer returning to his home 



•1^8 ■ TENTING ON THE PLAINS, 

at night with his tin dinner-pail as a creature 
to be envied, and my imagination follows the 
husband into his humble house. The wife to 
whom he returns may have lost much that ambi- 
tion and success bring, but she has secured for 
herself a lifetime of happy twilights, when all 
she cares for is safe under her affectionate eyes. 

Our father and mother Custer lived near us, 
and Sister Margaret and the younger brother 
" Bos," were then at home and in school. The 
parting with his mother, the only sad hour to 
my blithe husband, tore his heart as it always 
did, and he argued in vain with her, that, as he 
had come home after five years of incessant bat- 
tles, she might look for his safe return again. 
Each time seemed to be the last to her, for she was 
so delicate she hardly expected to live to see him 
again. 

The summer has been one of such pleasure to 
her. Her beloved boy, dashing in and out in his 
restless manner, was never too absorbed with what- 
ever took up his active mind, to be anything but 
gentle and thoughtful for her. She found our 
Eliza a mine of information, and just as willing as 
mother herself to talk all day about the one topic 
in common, the General and his war experiences. 

Then the dogs and horses, and the stir and life 
produced by the introduction of ourselves and our 



A DANGER ESCAPED. 339 

belongings into her quiet existence, made her re- 
call the old farm life when her brood of children 
were all around her. Brother Tom had spent the 
summer skipping from flower to flower, tasting 
the sweets of all the rose-bud garden of girls in 
our pretty town. I had already taken to myself 
a good deal of the mothering of this wild boy, 
and began to worry, as is the custom of mothers, 
over the advances of a venturesome woman who 
was no longer young and playing for high stakes. 
It was no small matter to me, as I knew Tom 
would live with us always, if he could manage to 
do so, and my prospective sister-in-law would be 
my nearest companion. Lad as he was, he 
escaped, and preserved his heart in an unbroken 
condition during the summer. Much to our rc: 
gret, he was appointed to a lieutenancy in a regi- 
ment stationed South, after he was mustered out 
of the volunteer service ; but the General suc- 
ceeded in effecting his transfer to the Seventh Cav- 
alry, and after a short service in the South he joined 
us at Fort Riley that year. 

One of our Detroit friends invited us to go with 
a party of pretty women, in a special car, to St. 
Louis ; so we had a gay send-off for our new 
home. I don't remember to have had an anxiety 
as to the future ; I was wholly given over to the 
joy of realizing that the war was over, and, girl- 



340 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



like, now the one great danger was passed, I felt as 
if all that sort of life was forever ended. At any 
rate, the magnetic influence of my husband's joy- 
ous temperament, which would not look on the 
dark side, had such power over those around him 
that I was impelled to look upon our future as he 
did. In St. Louis we had a round of gayety. 
The great Fair was then at its best, for everyone 
was making haste to dispel the gloom that our 
terrible war had cast over the land. There was 
not a corner of the Fair-ground to which my hus- 
band did not penetrate. He took me into all sorts 
of places to which our pretty galaxy of belles, 
with their new conquests of St. Louis beaux, had 
no interest in going — the stalls of the thorough- 
bred horses, when a chat with the jockeys was in- 
cluded ; the cattle, costing per head what, we 
whispered to each other, would set us up in a 
handsome income for life and buy a Blue-grass 
farm with blooded horses, etc., which was my 
husband's ideal home. And yet I do not remem- 
ber that money ever dwelt very long in our minds, 
we learned to have such a royal time on so 
little. 

There was something that always came before 
the Kentucky farm with its thoroughbreds. If 
ever he said, " If I get rich, I'll tell you what I'll 
do," I knew as well before he spoke just what was 



AT THE FAIR-GROUNDS. 



;4it 



to follow. In all the twelve years he never al- 
tered the first plan — " I'll buy a home for father 
and mother." They owned their home in Monroe 
then, but it was not good enough to please him ; 
nothing was good enough for his mother, but 
the dear woman, with her simple tastes, would 
have felt far from contented in the sort of home 
in which her son longed to place her. All she 
asked was to gather her boys around her, so that 
she could see them every day. 

As we wandered round the Fair-grounds, side- 
shows with their monstrosities came into the 
General's programme, and the prize pigs were 
never neglected. If we bent over the pens to see 
the huge things rolling in lazy contentment, my 
husband went back to his farm days, and explained 
what taught him to like swine, in which, I admit, 
I could not be especially interested. His father 
had given each son a pig, with the promise exacted 
in return that they should be daily washed and 
combed. When the General described the pink 
and white collection of pets that his father dis- 
tributed among his sons, swine were no longer 
swine to me, they were "curled darlings," as he 
pictured them. And now I recall, that long after 
he showed such true appreciation of his friend's 
stock on one of the Blue-grass farms in Kentucky, 
where we visited, two pigs of royal birth. 



;42 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



whose ancestors dated back many generations, 
were given to us, and we sent them home to our 
farmer brother to keep until we should possess a 
place of our own, which was one of the mild 
indulgences of our imagination, and which we 
hoped would be the diversion of our old age. I 
think it rather strange that my husband looked so 
fearlessly into the future. I hardly know how 
one so active could so calmly contemplate the 
days when his steps would be slow. We never 
passed on the street an old man with gray curls 
lying over his coat-collar, but the General slack- 
ened his steps to say in a whisper, " There, Libbie, 
that's me, forty years from now." And if there 
happened to be John Anderson's obese old wife 
by him toddling painfully along, red and out of 
breath, he teasingly added, " And that's what you 
would like to be." It was a never-ending source 
of argument, that I would be much more success- 
ful in the way of looks if I were not so slender ; 
and as my husband, even when a lad, liked women 
who were slenderly formed, he loved to torment 
me, by pointing out to what awful proportions a 
woman weighing what was to me a requisite num- 
ber of pounds sometimes arrived in old age. 

A tournament was given in the great amphi- 
theatre of the Fair building in St. Louis, which 
was simply delightful to us. The horsemanship 



KNIGHT. ERRANTR V. 



\43 



so pleased my husband that he longed to bound 
down into the arena, take a horse, and tilt with 
their long lances at the rings. Some of the Con- 
federate officers rode for the prizes, and their 
knights' costume and good horses were objects of 
momentary envy, as they recalled the riding 
academy exercises at West Point. Finally, the 
pretty ceremony of crowning the Queen of Love 
and Beauty, by the successful knight, ended a real 
gala day to us. At night a ball at the hotel gave 
us an opportunity to be introduced to the beauti- 
ful woman, who sat on a temporary throne in the 
dancing-hall, and we thought her well worth tilt- 
ing lances for, and that nothing could encourage 
good horsemanship like giving as a prize the tem- 
porary possession of a pretty girl. 

While in St. Louis, we heard Mr. Lawrence 
Barrett for the first time. He was of nearly the 
same age as my husband, and after three years 
soldiering in our war, as a captain in the Twenty- 
eighth Massachusetts Infantry, had returned to his 
profession, full of ambition and the sort of "go" 
that called out instant recognition from the 
General. 

Mr. Barrett, in recalling lately the first time he 
met General Custer, spoke of the embarrassing 
predicament in which he was placed by the 
impetuous determination of one whom from that 



;44 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



hour he cherished as his warmest friend. He 
was playing '' Rosedale," and my husband was 
charmed with his rendering of the hero's part. 
He recalled for years the delicate manner with 
which the lover allows his wounded hand to be 
bound, and the subtle cunning with which he 
keeps the fair minister of his hurts winding and 
unwinding the bandages. Then Mr. Barrett sang 
a song in the play, which the General hummed 
for years afterward. I remember his going pell- 
mell into the subject whenever we met, even 
when Mr. Barrett was justifiably glowing with 
pride over his success in the legitimate drama, 
and interrupting him to ask why he no longer 
played " Rosedale." The invariable answer, that 
the play required extreme youth in the hero, had 
no sort of power to stop the continued demand 
for his favorite melodrama. After we had seen 
the play — it was then acted for the first time — the 
General begged me to wait in the lobby until he 
had sought out Mr. Barrett to thank him, and on 
our return from theatre we lay in wait, knowing 
that he stopped at our hotel. As he was go- 
ing quietly to his room — reserved even then, 
boy that he was, with not a trace of the impetuous, 
ardent lover he had so lately represented before 
the footlights — off raced the General up the stairs, 
tw^o steps at a time, to capture him. He de- 



RAID ON AN ACTOR. 



345 



murred, saying his rough traveHng suit of gray 
was hardly presentable in a drawing-room, but 
the General persisted, saying, " The old lady told 
me I must seize you, and go you must, for I don't 
propose to return without fulfilling her orders." 
Mr. Barrett submitted, and was presented to our 
party, who had accompanied us on the special 
car to St. Louis. The gray clothes were forgotten 
in a moment, in the reception we gave him ; but 
music came out from the dinino^-room and all 
rose to go, as Mr. Barrett supposed, to our rooms. 
The General took a lady on his arm, 1, at my 
husband's suggestion, put my hand on Mr. Bar- 
rett's arm, and before he had realized it, he was 
being marched into the brilliantly lighted ball- 
room, and bowing from force of capture before 
the dais on which sat the Queen of Love and 
Beauty. 

All this delighted the General. Unconven- 
tional himself, he nothing heeded the chagrin of 
Mr. Barrett over his inappropriate garb, and 
chuckled like a schoolboy over his successful raid. 
I think Mr. Barrett was not released until he 
pleaded the necessity for time to work. He was 
then reading and studying far into the night, to 
make up for the lapse in his profession that his 
army life had caused. He was not so absorbed 
in his literary pursuits, however, that he did not 



346 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

take in the charm of those beautiful St. Louis 
girls, and we three, in many a jolly evening since, 
have gone back to the beauty of the bewitching 
belles, as they floated by us in that ballroom or 
paused to capture the new Riclmtonds on their 
already crowded field. Mr. Barrett even remem- 
bers that the Queen of Love and Beauty vouch- 
safed him the eighth of a dance, for her royal 
highness dispensed favors by piece-meal to the 
waiting throng about her throne. 

Our roving life brought us in contact with 
actors frequently. If the General found that Mr. 
Barrett was to play in any accessible city, he 
hurried me into my traveling-gown, flung his 
own dress-coat and my best bonnet in a crumpled 
mass into a little trunk, and off we started in per- 
suit. It is hard to speak fittingly of the meeting 
of those two men. They joyed in each other as 
women do, and I tried not to look when they 
met or parted, while they gazed with tears into 
each other's eyes and held hands like exuberant 
girls. Each kept track of the other's movements, 
through the papers, and rejoiced at every success, 
while Mr. Barrett, with the voice my husband 
thought perfect in intonation and expression, 
always called to him the moment they met, " Well, 
old fellow, hard at work making history, are you ?" 

A few evenings since I chanced to see Mr. 



DECLINING ARMOR. 



347 



Barrett's dresser, the Irish " Garry," who had 
charge of his costumes in those days when the 
General used to haunt the dressing-room in the 
last winter we were together in New York. As 
Casshis he entered the room in armor, and found 
his " old man Custer " waiting for him. Garry 
tells me that my husband leaped toward the 
mailed and helmeted soldier, and gave him some 
rousing bangs on the corsleted chest, for they 
sparred like boys. Mr. Barrett, parrying the 
thrust, said, " Custer, old man, you ought to have 
one of these suits of armor for your work." " Ye 
gods, no !" said the General, in mimic alarm ; 
" with that glistening breast-plate as a target, 
every arrow would be directed at me. I'd rather 
go naked than in that !" 




Kansas in 1866 and Kansas To-day. 

In iSbb there were three hundred miles of railroad ; in 1886, six thousand 

one hundred and forty -four. 

348 



CHAPTER XII. 

■GOOD-BY TO CIVILIZATION WESTWARD HO ! THE 

PRAIRIE-SCHOONER AS WE FIRST SAW IT A FEW- 
COMMENTS ON THE WISDOM OF THE ARMY MULE 

THE WAGON-MASTER AND MULE-WHACKER AS 

TYPES OF WESTERN ECCENTRICITY CARRYING 

SUPPLIES TO DISTANT POSTS FIRST OVERLAND 

JOURNEY IN AN ARMY AMBULANCE ARRIVAL AT 

FORT RILEY BORDER WARFARE BETWEEN QUAR- 
RELSOME DOGS THE HOSPITALITY OF OFFICERS 

AND THEIR FAMILIES WELCOMED AND HOUSED 

BY ONE OF GENERAL CUSTER's OLD FRIENDS 

CHANGING OF QUARTERS ACCORDING TO ARMY 

REGULATIONS PREPARING A NEW-COMER FOR 

HIS CALL ON THE COMMANDING OFFICER'S FAMILY 

THE NEW ARRIVAL PRESENTS HIMSELF IN VERY 

FULL DRESS DIANa's HORSE TELLS TALES GEN- 
ERAL CUSTER TAKES HIS DOGS AND GIVES RUN TO 
HIS HORSE OVER THE PLAINS HIS HORSES COM- 
MUNE WITH HIM AFTER THEIR DUMB FASHION 

THE STRENGTH OF HIS ARM RESERVED FOR 
THE COUNTRY SEPARATED FROM THE POST BY 
THE PRAIRIE DIVIDES — WE TRADE HORSES 

PHIL SHERIDAN TESTED ON A RACE-TRACK 

FIGHTING DISSIPATION IN THE SEVENTH 

CAVALRY GENERAL CUSTER's TEMPTATIONS 



[^O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

THE FAMILY TEACH HIM TO APPRECIATE HIS SUN- 
BURNED NOSE MEN WHO COMMAND THE ADMI- 
RATION OF WOMEN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

AN ARMY DEMIJOHN. 



" I 'HE junketing and frolic at St. Louis came to 
an end in a few days, and our faces were 
again turned westward to a life about as different 
from the glitter and show of the gay city in a holi- 
day week as can be imagined. Leavenworth was 
our first halt, and its well-built streets and excellent 
stores surprised us. It had long been the outfit- 
ting place for our officers. The soldiers drew 
supplies from the military post, and the officers 
furnished themselves with camp equipage from 
the city. Here also they bought condemned 
ambulances, and put them in order for traveling- 
carriages for their families. I remember getting 
a faint glimmer of the climate we were about to 
endure, by seeing a wagon floored, and its sides 
lined with canvas, which was stuffed to keep out 
the cold, while a little sheet-iron stove was firmly 
fixed at one end, with a bit of miniature pipe pro- 
truding through the roof. The journey from 
Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, New Mexico, then 
took six weeks. Everything was transported in 
the great army wagons called prairie-schooners. 
These were well named, as the two ends of the 



352 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

wagon inclined upward, like the bow and stern of 
a fore -and -after. It is hard to realize how 
strangely a long train of supplies for one of the 
distant posts looked, as it wound slowly over the 
plains. The blue wagon-beds, with white canvas 
covers rising up ever so high, disclosed, in the 
small circle where they were drawn together at the 
back, all kinds of material for the clothing and 
feeding of the army in the distant Territories. 
The number of mules to a wagon varies ; some- 
times there are four, and again six. The driver 
rides the near-wheel mule. He holds in his hand 
a broad piece of leather, an inch and a half in 
width, which divides over the shoulders of the 
lead or pilot mule, and fastens to the bit on either 
side of his mouth. The leaders are widely sepa- 
rated. A small hickory stick, about five feet 
long, called the jockey-stick, not unlike a rake- 
handle, is stretched between a pilot and his mate. 
This has a little chain at either end, and is at- 
tached by a snap or hook to the bit of the other 
leader. 

When the driver gives one pull on the heavy 
strap, the pilot mule veers to the left, and pulls 
his mate. Two quick, sudden jerks mean to the 
right, and he responds, and pushes his companion 
accordingly ; and in this simple manner the ponder- 
ous vehicle and all the six animals are guided. . . 



GOVERNMENT MULES. 



35; 



The most spirited mules are selected from the train 
for leaders. They cannot be reached by the whip, 
and the driver must rely upon the emphasis he puts 
into his voice to incite them to effort. They know 
their names, and I have seen them respond to a 
call, even when not accompanied by the expletives 
that seem to be composed especially for this branch 
of charioteering. The driver of our mules natur- 
ally suppressed his invectives in my presence. The 
most profane soldier holds his tongue m a vise 
when he is in the presence of a woman, but he is 
sorely put to it, to find a substitute for the only 
language he considers a mule will heed. I have 
seen our driver shake his head, and move his jaws 
in an ominous manner, when the provoking 
leaders took a skittish leap on one side of the trail, 
or turned round and faced him with a protest 
against further progress. They were sometimes 
so afraid of buffalo, and always of Indians, they 
became rebellious to such a degree he was at his 
wits' end to get any further go out of them. It was 
in vain he called out, " You Bet, there ! " "What 
you about, Sal ? " He plainly showed and said 
that he found "such ere tongue-lashing wouldn't 
work worth a rap with them vicious creeturs." 

The driver, if he is not a stolid Mexican, takes 
much pride in his mules. By some unknown 
means, poor as he is, he possesses himself of fox 



154 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



or small coyote tails, which he fastens to their 
bridle, and the vagaries in the clipping of the 
poor beast's tails would set the fashion to a Paris 
hair-dresser. They are shaved a certain distance, 
and then a tuft is left, making a bushy ring. This 
is done twice, if Bet or Sal is vouchsafed an append- 
age long enough to admit of it ; while the tuft on 
the end, though of little use to intimidate flies, is 
a marvel of mule-dudism. The coats of the beasts, 
so valued sometimes, shine like the fine hair of a 
good horse. Alas ! not when, in the final stages 
of a long march, the jaded, half-starved beasts 
dragged themselves over the trail. Driver and 
lead mules even, lose ambition under the scorching 
sun, and with the insufficient food and long water- 
famines. 

The old reliability of a mule-team is the off- 
wheeler. It is his leathery sides that can be most 
readily reached by the whip called a " black- 
snake," and when the descent is made into a 
stream with muddy bed, the cut is given to this 
faithful beast, and on his powerful muscles depends 
the wrench that jerks the old schooner out of a 
slough. The nigh or saddle mule does his part 
in such an emergency, but he soon reasons that, 
because he carries the driver, not much more is 
expected of him. 

The General and I took great interest in the 



SIGNIFICANT NAMES. 



155 



names given to the animals that pulled our trav- 
eling-wagon or hauled the supplies. As we rode 
by, the voice of the driver bringing out the name 
he had chosen, and sometimes affectionately, made 
us sure that the woman for whom the beast was 
christened was the sweetheart of the apparently 
prosaic teamster. I was avowedly romantic, and 
the General was equally so, though, after the 
fashion of men, he did not proclaim it. Our place 
at the head of the column was sometimes vacant, 
either because we delayed for our luncheon, or 
because my husband remained behind to help the 
quartermaster or the head teamster get the train 
over a stream. It was then that we had the ad- 
vantage of hearing the names conferred on the 
mules. They took in a wide range of female 
nomenclature, and we found it great fun to watch 
the family life of one human being and his six 
beasts. My husband had the utmost respect for 
a mule's sense. When I looked upon them as 
dull, half-alive animals, he bade me watch how 
deceitful were appearances, as they showed such 
cunning, and evinced the wisdom of a quick-witted 
thoroughbred, when apparently they were unob- 
serving, sleepy brutes. It was the General who 
made me notice the skill and rapidity with which 
a group of six mules would straighten out what 
seemed to be a hopeless tangle of chains and har- 



356 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ness, into which they had kicked themselves when 
there was a disturbance among them. One crack 
of the whip from the driver who had tethered 
them after a march, accompanied by a plain state- 
ment of his opinion of such " fools," would send 
the whole collection wide apart, and it was but a 
twinkling before they extricated themselves from 
what 1 thought a hopeless mess. No chains or 
straps were broken, and a meek, subdued look 
pervading the group, left not a trace of the active 
heels that a moment before had filled the air. 
"There," the General used to say, "don't ever 
flatter yourself again that a mule hasn't sense. 
He's got more wisdom than half the horses in the 
line." It took a good while to convince me, as a 
more loggy looking animal can hardly be found 
than the army mule, which never in his existence 
is expected to go off from a walk, or to vary his 
life, from the day he is first harnessed, until he 
drops by the way, old or exhausted. 

At the time we were first on the Plains, many 
of the teamsters were Mexicans, short, swarthy, 
dull, and hardly a grade above the animal. The 
only ambition of these creatures seemed to be to 
vie with one another as to who could snap the 
huge " black-snake " the loudest. They learned 
to whisk the thong at the end around the ears of 
a shirking off leader, and crack the lash with such 



THE PRAIRIE-SCHOONER SUPPLANTED. 



357 



an explosive sound that I never got over jumping 
in my whole Plains life. I am sorry to say my 
high-strung horse usually responded with a spring 
that sent me into thin air anywhere between his 
ears and his tail, with a good deal of uncertainty 
as to where I should alight. I suspect it was an 
innocent little amusement of the drivers, when 
occasionally we remained behind at nooning, and 
had to ride swiftly by the long train to reach the 
head of the column. 

The prairie-schooner disappeared with the ad- 
vancing railroad ; but I am glad to see that 
General Meigs has perpetuated its memory, by 
causing this old means of transportation to be 
made one of the designs in the beautiful frieze 
carved around the outside of the Pension Office 
at Washington. Ungainly and cumbersome as 
these wagons were, they merit some such monu- 
ment, as part of the history of the early days of 
frontier life in our country. We were in the 
West several years before the railroad was com- 
pleted to Denver, and the overland trains became 
an every-day sight to us. Citizens used oxen a 
great deal for transportation, and there is no 
picture that represents the weariness and laggard 
progress of life like an ox-train bound for Santa 
Fe or Denver. The prairie-schooner might set 
out freshly painted, or perhaps washed in a creek, 



358 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

but it soon became gray with layer upon layer of 
alkali dust. The oxen — well, nothing save a snail 
can move more slowly — and the exhaustion of 
these beasts, after weeks of uninterrupted travel, 
was pitiful. Imagine, also, the unending vigil when 
the trains were insecurely guarded ; for in those 
days there was an immense unprotected frontier, 
and seemingly only a handful of cavalry. The 
regiments looked well on the roster, but there 
were in reality but few men. A regiment should 
number twelve hundred enlisted men ; but at no 
time, unless during the war, does the recruiting 
officer attempt to fill it to the maximum ; seventy 
men to a company is a large number. The de- 
sertions during the first years of the reorganiza- 
tion of the army after the war thinned the ranks 
constantly. Recruits could not be sent out fast 
enough to fill up the companies. The conse- 
quence was, that all those many hundred miles of 
trail where the Government undertook to protect 
citizens who carried supplies to settlements and 
the mines, as well as its own trains of material for 
building new posts, and commissary and quarter- 
master's stores for troops, were terribly exposed 
and very poorly protected. 

" The Indians were, unfortunately, located on the 
great highway of Western travel; and commerce, 
not less than emigration, demanded their removal." 



VERLAMD TRANS FOR TA TION: 



159 



There are many conflicting opinions as to the 
course pursued to clear the way ; but I only wish 
to speak now of the impression the trains made 
upon me, as we constantly saw the long, dusty, 
exhausted-looking column wending its serpentine 
way over the sun-baked earth. A group of cav- 
alry, with their drooping horses, rode in front and 
at the rear. The wagon-master was usually the 
very quintessence of valor. It is true he formed 
such a habit of shooting that he grew mdiscrimi- 
nate, and should any of the lawless desperadoes 
whom he hired as teamsters or trainmen ruffle his 
blood, kept up to boiling-heat by suspense, physi- 
cal exposure, and exasperating employees, he 
knew no way of settling troubles except the 
effectual quietus that a bullet secures. I well 
remember my husband and Tom, who dearly 
loved to raise my indignation, and create signs of 
horror and detestation at their tales, walking 
me down to the Government train to see a wagon- 
master who had shot five men. He had emi- 
grated from the spot where he bade fair to establish 
a private cemetery with his victims. No one 
needed a reason for his sudden appearance after 
the number of his slain was known. And yet no 
questions were put as to his past. He made a 
capital wagon-master ; he was obedient to his 
superiors, faithful, and on time every morning, 



360 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and the prestige of his past record answered so 
well with the citizen employees, that his pistol 
remained unused in the holster. 

It seemed to be expected that the train-master 
would be a villain. Whatever was their record as 
to the manner of arranging private disputes, a 
braver class of men never followed a trail, and 
some of them were far superior to their chance 
lot. Their tender care of women who crossed in 
these slow-moving ox-trains, to join their hus- 
bands, ought to be commemorated. I have some- 
where read one of the'ir remarks when a girl, going 
to her mother, had been secreted in a private 
wagon and there was no knowledge of her pres- 
ence until the Indians were discovered to be near. 
" Tain't no time to be teamin' women folks over 
the trail, with sech a fearsom sperit for Injuns as I 
be." He, like some of the bravest men I have 
known, spoke of himself as timid, while he knew 
no fear. It certainly unnerved the most valiant 
man when Indians were lurking near, to realize 
the fate that hung over women entrusted to their 
care. In a later portion of my story occurs an 
instance of an officer hiding the woman whose 
husband had asked him to take her into the States, 
even before firing a shot at the adversary, as he 
knew with what redoubled ferocity the savage 
would fight, at sight of the white face of a 



GRA VES B y THE WA Y-SIDE. 36 1 

woman. It makes the heart beat, even to look at 
a picture of the old mode of traversing- the high- 
way of Western travel. The sight of the pictured 
train, seemingly so peacefully lumbering on its 
sleepy way, the scarcely revolving wheels, creak- 
ing out a protest against even that effort, recalls 
the agony, the suspense, the horror, with which 
every inch of that long route has been made. The 
heaps of stones by the way-side, or the buffalo 
bones, collected to mark the spot where some man 
fell from an Indian arrow, are now disappearing. 
The hurricanes beating upon the hastily prepared 
memorials have scattered the bleached bones of 
the bison, and rolled into the tufted grass the few 
stones with which the train-men, at risk of their 
own lives, have delayed long enough to mark their 
comrade's grave. 

The faded photographs or the old prints of those 
overland trains speak to me but one story. In- 
stantly I recall the hourly vigilance, the restless 
eyes scanning the horizon, the breathless suspense, 
when the pioneers or soldiers knew from unmis- 
takable signs that the Indian was lying in wait. 
In what contrast to the dull, logy, scarcely moving 
oxen were these keen-eyed heroes, with every 
nerve strained, every sense on the alert. And 
how they were maddened by the fate that con- 
signed them, at such moments, to the mercy of 



J 



62 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



" dull, driven cattle." When I have seen officers 
and soldiers lay their hands lovingly on the neck 
of their favorite horse, and perhaps, when no one 
was near to scoff at sentiment, say to me, " He 
saved my life," I knew well what a man felt when 
his horse took fire at knowledge of danger to his 
rider and sped on the wings of the wind, till he was 
lost to his pursuers, a tiny black speck on the hori- 
zon. The pathos of a soldier's parting with his 
horse moved us to quick sympathy. It often hap- 
pens that a trooper retains the same animal through 
his entire enlistment, and it comes to be his most 
intimate friend. There is nothing he will not do 
to provide him with food ; if the forage runs low 
or the grazing is insufficient, stealing for his horse 
is reckoned a virtue among soldiers. Imagine, 
then, the anxiety, the real suffering, with which a 
soldier watches his faithful beast growing weaker 
day by day, from exhaustion or partial starvation. 
He walks beside him to spare his strength, and 
finally, when it is no longer possible to keep up 
with the column, and the soldier knows how fatal 
the least delay may be in an Indian country, it is 
more pitiful than almost any sight I recall, the 
sadness of his departure from the skeleton, whose 
eyes follow his master in wondering affection, 
as he walks away with the saddle and accou- 
trements. It is the most merciful farewell if a 



A DISMOUNTED CAVALRYMAN. 363 

bullet is lodged in the brain of the famished or 
exhausted beast, but some one else than his sor- 
rowing master has to do the trying deed. 

This is not the last act in the harrowing scene. 
The soldier overtakes the column, loaded down 
with his saddle, if the train is too far away to de- 
posit it in the company wagon. Then begms a 
tirade of annoying comments to this man, still 
grieving over the parting with his best friend. 
No one can conceive what sarcasm and wit can 
proceed from a column of cavalry. Many of the 
men are Irish, and their reputation for humor is 
world-wide. "Hullo, there! joined the doe-boys, 
eh?" "How do you like hoofing it?" are tame 
specimens of the remarks from these tormenting 
tongues ; such a fusillade of sneers is followed 
not long after by perhaps the one most gibing of 
all flinging himself off from his horse, and giving 
his mount to the one he has done his best to stir 
into wrath. A cavalry man hates, beyond any 
telling, enforced pedestrianism, and " Share and 
share alike " is a motto that our Western soldiers 
keep in use. 

If the wagons held merchandise only, by which 
the pioneer hoped to grow rich, the risk and sus- 
pense attending these endless marches were not 
worth commemorating ; but the bulk of the freight 
was the actual necessities of life. Conceive, if 



364 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

you can, how these brave men felt themselves 
chained, as they drove or guarded the food for 
those living- far in advance. There were not 
enough to admit of a charge on the enemy, and 
the defensive is an exasperating position for a 
soldier or frontiersman. He long^s to advance on 
the foe ; but no such privilege was allowed them, 
for in these toilsome journeys they had often to 
use precautions to hide themselves. If Indians 
were discovered to be roaming near, the camp 
was established, trains coralled, animals secured 
inside a temporary stockade ; the fires for coffee 
were forbidden, for smoke rises like a funnel, and 
hangs out an instant signal in that clear air. Even 
the consoling pipe was smoked under a sage-bush 
or in a hollow, if there happened to be a depres- 
sion of the ground. Few words were spoken, the 
loud oaths sunk into low mutterings, and the bray 
of a hungry mule, the clank of wagon-chains, or 
the stamping of cattle on the baked earth, 
sounded like thunder in the ears of the anxious, 
expectant men. 

Fortunately, our journey in these trains was not 
at once forced upon us at Leavenworth. The 
Kansas Pacific Railroad, projected to Denver, was 
built within ten miles of Fort Riley, and it was to 
be the future duty of the Seventh Cavalry, to guard 
the engineers in building the remainder of the 



A FRONTIER OUTFIT. 365 

road out to the Rocky Mountains. It did not take 
us long to purchase an outfit in the shops, for as 
usual our finances were low, and consequently 
our wants were curtailed. We had the sense to 
listen to a hint from some practical officer who 
had been far beyond railroads, and buy a cook- 
stove the first thing, and this proved to be the 
most important of our possessions when we 
reached our post, so far from the land of shops. 
Not many hours after we left Leavenworth, the 
settlements became farther and farther apart, and 
we began to realize that we were actual pioneers ! 
Kansas City was then but a small town, seemingly 
with a hopeless future, as the bluffs rose so steeply 
from the river, and even when the summit was 
reached, the ups and downs of the streets were 
discouraging. It seemed, then, as if it would never 
be worth while to use it as a site for a town ; there 
would be a life-time of grading. It is very easy 
to become a city forefather in such a town, for in 
the twenty-one years since then, it has grown into 
a city of over 132,000 inhabitants — but they are 
still grading. The lots which we could have had 
almost for the asking, sell now for $1,000 a front 
foot. Topeka, the capital, showed no evidence 
of its importance, except the little circle of stars 
that surrounded it on our atlas. There were but 
three towns beyond Fort Riley then, and those 



366 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

were built, if I may so express it, of canvas and 
dug-outs. 

Our railroad journey came to an end about ten 
miles from Fort Riley. The laborers were laying 
track from that point. It had been a sort of gala 
day, for General Sherman, on one of his tours of 
inspection of the frontier posts, had been asked 
by railroad officials to drive the final spike of the 
division of the road then finished. We found a 
wagon waiting for our luggage, and an ambulance 
to carry us the rest of the journey. These 
vehicles are not uncomfortable, when the long 
seats on either side are so arranged that they 
make a bed for the ill or wounded by spreading 
them out, but as traveling conveyances I could 
not call them a success. The seats are narrow, 
with no back to speak of, and covered with car- 
riage-cloth, which can keep you occupied, if the 
country is rough, in regaining the slippery surface 
for any number of miles at a stretch. Fort Riley 
came in sight when we were pretty well tired out. 
It was m*y first view of a frontier post. I had 
either been afraid to confess my ignorance, or so 
assured there was but one variety of fort, and the 
subject needed no investigation, that Fort Riley 
came upon me as a great surprise. I supposed, of 
course, it would be exactly like Fortress Monroe, 
with stone walls, turrets for the sentinels, and a 



THE ROLLING PLAINS. 367 

deep moat. As I had heard more and more about 
Indians since reaching Kansas, a vision of the en- 
closure where we would eventually live was a 
great comfort to me. I could scarcely believe 
that the buildings, a story and a half high, placed 
around a parade ground, were all there was of 
Fort Riley. The sutler's store, the quartermaster 
and commissary storehouses, and the stables for 
the cavalry horses, were outside the square, near 
the post, and that was all. No trees, and hardly 
any signs of vegetation except the buffalo-grass 
that curled its sweet blades close to the ground, 
as if to protect the nourishment it held from the 
blazing sun. The post was beautifully situated 
on a wide plateau, at the junction of the Republi- 
can and Smoky Hill rivers. The Plains, as they 
waved away on all sides of us like the surface of 
a vast ocean, had the charm of great novelty, and 
the absence of trees was at first forgotten, in the 
fascination of seeing such an immense stretch of 
country, with the soft undulations of green turf 
rolling on, seemingly, to the setting sun. The eye 
was relieved by the fringe of cotton-wood that 
bordered the rivers below us. 

Though we came afterward to know, on toil- 
some marches under the sweltering sun, when 
that orb was sometimes not even hidden for one 
moment in the day by a grateful cloud, but the 



•;68 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

sky was spread over as a vast canopy of dazzling 
blue, that enthusiasm would not outlast such trials; 
still, a rarely exultant feeling takes possession of 
one in the gallops over the Plains, when in early 
spring they are a trackless sea of soft verdure. 
And the enthusiasm returns when the campaign 
for the summer is over, and riding is taken up for 
pleasure. My husband was full of delight over 
the exquisite haze that covered the land with 
a faint purple light, and exclaimed, " Now I 
begin to realize what all that transparent veil of 
faint color means in Bierstadt's paintings of the 
Rocky Mountains and the West." But we had 
little time to take in atmospheric effects, as even- 
ing was coming on and we were yet to be housed, 
while servants, horses, dogs and all of us were 
hungry, after our long drive. The General halted 
the wagon outside the post, and left us, to go and 
report to the commanding officer. 

At that time I knew nothing of the hospitality 
of a frontier post, and I begged to remain in the 
wagon until our quarters were assigned us in the 
garrison. Up to this time we had all been m 
splendid spirits ; the novelty, the lovely day and 
exhilarating air, and all the possibilities of a future 
with a house of our own, or, rather, one lent to 
us by Uncle Sam, seemed to fill up a delightful 
cup to the brim. We sat outside the post so long — 



TIRED PIONEERS. 



;69 



at least it seemed so to us — and grew hungrier and 
thirstier, that there were evident signs of mutiny. 
The truth is, whenever the General was with us, 
with his determination of thniking that nothing 
could exceed his surroundings, it was almost im- 
possible to look upon anything except in the light 
that he did. He gave color to everything, with 
his hopeful views. Eliza sat on the seat with the 
driver, and both muttered occasional hungry 
words, but our Diana and I had the worst of it. We 
had bumped over the country, sometimes violently 
jammed against the framework of the canvas 
cover, and most of the time slidmg off from the 
slippery cushions upon the insulted dogs — for of 
course the General had begged a place for two of 
them. He had kept them in order all the way 
from the termination of the railroad ; but now that 
he was absent, Turk and Byron renewed hostilities, 
and in the narrow space they scrambled and 
snarled and sprang at each other. When the 
General came back, he found the little hands of 
our curly-headed girl clenched over the collar of 
Byron at one end of the ambulance, while Turk 
sat on my lap, swelling with rage because my 
fingers were twisted in the chain that held him, as 
I sat at the door shaking with terror. It was 
quick work to jerk the burly brute out of the door, 
and end our troubles for the time ; but the General, 



370 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



after quieting our panic, threw us into a new one 
by saying we must make up our minds to be the 
guests of the commanding officer. Tired, travel- 
stamed, and unaccustomed to what afterward be- 
came comparatively easy, we were driven to one 
of the quarters and made our entrance among 
strangers. I then reahzed, for the first time, that 
we had reached a spot where the comforts of hfe 
could not be had for love or money. 

It is a strange sensation to arrive at a place 
where money is of little use in providing shelter, 
and here we were beyond even the commonest 
railroad hotel. Mrs. Gibbs, who received us, was 
put to a severe test that night. Already a room 
in her small house had been prepared for General 
Sherman, who had arrived earlier in the day, and 
now there were five of us bearing down upon her. 
I told her how I had begged to be allowed to go 
into quarters, even though there were no prepara- 
tions, not even a fire-place where Eliza could have 
cooked us food enough over the coals to stay 
hunger ; but she assured me that, having been on 
the Plains before the war, she was quite accus- 
tomed to a state of affairs where there was nothing 
to do but quarter yourself upon strangers ; and 
then gave up her own room to our use. From 
that night — which was a real trial to me, because I 
felt so keenly the trouble we caused them all — 



GENUINE HOSPITALITY. 37I 

dates the beginning of a friendship that has lasted 
through the darkest as well as the brightest hours 
of my life. I used to try to remember after- 
ward, when for nine years we received and enter- 
tained strangers who had nowhere else to go, the 
example of undisturbed hospitality shown me by 
my first friend on the frontier. 

The next day my husband assumed command 
of the garrison, and our few effects were moved 
into a large double house built for the command- 
ing officer. There were parlors on one side, whose 
huge folding doors were flung open, and made our 
few articles of furniture look lonely and meagre. 
We had but six wooden chairs to begin with, and 
when, a few miles more of the railroad being com- 
pleted, a party of one hundred and fifty excur- 
sionists arrived, I seated six of them — yes, seven, 
for one was tired enough to sit on a trunk — and 
then concluded I would own up that in the larger 
rooms of the house, into which they looked sig- 
nificantly, there were no more chairs concealed. 
I had done my best, and tried to make up for not 
seating or feeding them by very busy talking. 
Meanwhile there were incessant inquiries for the 
General. It seems that he had begun that little 
trick of hiding from strangers, even then. He 
had seen the advancing column of tourists, and 
fled. One of the servants finally unearthed him, 



72 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



and after they had gone and he found that I had 
been so troubled to think I could do nothing for 
the citizens, and so worried because he was 71011 
est, he did not leave me in such strait again until 
I had learned to adapt myself to the customs of 
the country where the maxim that "every man's 
house is his castle " is a fallacy. 

.The officers who had garrisoned the post began 
to move out as our own Seventh Cavalry officers 
reported for duty. The colonel of the regiment 
arrived, and ranked us out of our quarters, in this 
instance much to our relief, as the barrack of a 
building would never fill up from the slow rate at 
which our belongings increased. This army regu- 
lation, to which I have elsewhere referred, was 
then new to me. The manner in which the Gov- 
ernment sees fit to arrange quarters is still amusing 
to me, but I suppose no better plan has ever been 
thought out. In the beginning of a well-built 
post, there is but little choice. It is the aim to 
make the houses, except that of the commanding 
officer, exactly alike. From time to time new 
quarters are built. The original plan is not fol- 
low^ed; possibly a few improvements are added to 
the newer houses. Ah ! then the disturbance en- 
sues ! Fort Vancouver, in Washington Territory, 
is one of the old posts, quite interesting from the 
heterogeneous collection of quarters added 



'' RANKING out:' 



through fifty years. I was spending a day or two, 
in 1875, with my husband's niece, whose husband 
was some distance down on the Ust, and conse- 
quently occupied a low log building, that dated 
back no one knows how far. Even in that little 
cabin they were insecure, for in reply to my ques- 
tion, " Surely you are permanently fixed, and won't 
be moved," they pathetically answered: " Not by 
any means ! We live from hour to hour in uncer- 
tainty, and there are worse quarters than these, 

which we walk by daily with dread, as 

ranks us, and he is going to be married, so out 
we go ! " 

Assigning quarters according to rank goes on 
smoothly for a time, but occasionally an officer re- 
ports for duty who ranks everyone. Not long 
ago this happened at a distant post, and the whole 
line went down like a row of bricks, as eight 
officers' families were ousted by his arrival, the 
lowest in rank having to move out one of the non- 
commissioned officers who had lived in a little 
cabin with two rooms. If possible, in choosing a 
time to visit our frontier posts, let this climax of 
affairs be avoided. Where there is little to vary 
life the monotony is apt to be deeply stirred by 
private rages, which would blow away in smoke if 
there was anything else to think of. It is rather 
harrowing to know that some one has an eye on 



74 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



the home you have furnished with your own 
means. I could hardly blame a man I knew, who, 
in an outburst of wrath concerning- an officer who 
had at last uprooted him, secretly rejoiced that a 
small room that had been the object of envy, 
having been built at the impoverished post of 
refuse lumber from the stables, was unendurable 
on a warm day; and the new possessor was left to 
find it out when he had settled himself in the 
coveted house. 

After our quarters were chosen by the Colonel, 
we took another house, of moderate size, bought 
a few pieces of furniture of an officer leaving the 
post, and began to live our first home-like life. 
The arrival of the new officers was for a time our 
only excitement. Most of them had been in the 
volunteer service, and knew nothing of the regular 
army. There was no one to play practical jokes 
on the first comers ; but they had made some 
ridiculous errors in dress and deportment, when 
reporting at first, and they longed to take out 
their mortification at these harmless mistakes, by 
laying pit-falls for the verdant ones who were 
constantly arriving. The discipline of the regular 
army, and the punctilious observance compelling 
the wearing of the uniform, was something totally 
new to men who had known little of parades in 
their fighting days in the tented field. If it was 



376 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

possible to intimidate a new officer by tales of the 
strictness of the commanding officer regarding the 
personal appearance of his regiment, they did 
so. One by one, those who had preceded the last 
comer called in to pay their compliments ; but by 
previous agreement they one and all dwelt upon 
the necessity of his making a careful toilet before 
he approached the august presence of the Lieuten- 
ant-colonel. Then one or two offered carelessly 
to help him get himself up for the occasion. Our 
brother Tom had arrived by this time, but there 
was nothing to be made out of him, for he had 
served a few months with a regular regiment be- 
fore being transferred to ours. He was therefore 
sent one day to prepare me for the call of an officer 
who had been assisted into his new uniform by 
the mischievous knot of men who had been longest 
with us. If I had known to what test I was to be 
put to keep my face straight, or had dreamed 
what a gullible creature had come into their ro- 
guish hands, I would not have consented to re- 
ceive him. But it was one of the imperative rules 
that each officer, after reporting for duty, must 
pay a formal visit to the commanding officer and 
his family. I went into the parlor to find a large 
and at that time awkward man. in full uniform, 
which was undeniably a tight fit for his rather 
portly figure. He wore cavalry boots, the first 



^.V ELABORA TE TOIL ET -^-jj 

singularity I noticed, for they had such expanse of 
top I could not help seeing them. They are of 
course out of order with a dress coat. The red 
sash, which was then en regie for all officers, was 
spread from up under his arms to as far below the 
waist line as its elastic silk could be stretched. 
The sword-belt, with sabre attached, surrounded 
this : and, folded over the wide red front, were 
his large hands, encased in white cotton gloves. 
He never moved them ; nor did he move an eye- 
lash, so far as I could discover, though it seems he 
was full of internal tremors, for the officers had told 
him on no account to remove his regulation hat. 
At this he demurred, and told them I would surely 
think he was no gentleman ; but they assured him 
I placed military etiquette far above any ordinary 
rule for manners in the presence of ladies, while 
the truth was I was rather indififerent as to militarv 
rules of dress. As this poor man sat there, I could 
think of nothing but a child who is so carefully 
dressed in new furbelows that it sits as if it were 
carved out of wood, for fear of disarrano^inor the 
finished toilet. Diana made almost an instant 
excuse to leave the room. The General's mus- 
tache quivered, and he moved restlessly around, 
even coming again to shake hands with the autom- 
aton and bid him welcome to the regiment ; but 
finally he dashed out of the door to enjoy the out- 



378 TENTIXG ON THE PLAINS. 

burst of mirth that he could no longer control. I 
was thus left to meet the situation as best I could, 
but was not as fortunate as the General, who had 
a friendly mustache to curtain the quiver in his 
mouth. The poor victim apparently recalled to 
himself the martial attitude of Washington cross- 
ing the Delaware, or Napoleon at Waterloo, and 
did not alter the first position he had assumed. In 
trying to prevent him from seeing my confusion, 
I redoubled my efforts to entertain him, and suc- 
ceeded only too well, for when he slowly moved 
out of the door I found myself tired out, and full 
of wrath toward my returning family. I never 
could remember that these little spurts of rage 
were the primest fun for my people. The poor 
officer who had been so guyed did not gratify his 
tormentors by getting angry, but fell to planning 
new mischief for the next arrival. He lost no 
time in begging my pardon for the hat, and 
though I never saw much of him afterward, he 
left only pleasant impressions on my mind of a 
kind-hearted man, and one of those rare beings 
who knew how to take a joke. 

We derived great pleasure from our horses and 
dogs during the autumn. A very pretty sorrel 
horse was selected for Diana, but we had little 
opportunity to have her for a companion. The 
young officers engaged her a week in advan.ce, 



A SNUGGLING HORSE. -> yg 

and about all we saw of her riding was an ava- 
lanche of flying- curls as she galloped off beside 
some dashing- cavalier. I remember once, when 
she was engaged otherwise, and my horse tempo- 
rarily disabled, I took hers, and my husband kept 
begging me to guide the animal better, for it was 
nettling his fiery beast by insisting upon too close 
proximity. It finally dawned upon us that the 
little horse was a constitutional snuggler, and we 
gave up trying to teach him new tricks. But how 
the General shouted, and bent himself forward 
and back in his saddle, after the horse had almost 
crushed his leg and nothing would keep him at a 
distance. He could hardly wait to get back to 
garrison, and when we did, he walked into the 
midst of a collection of the beaux and told the 
whole story of how dreadfully demoralized a 
cavalry horse in good and regular standing could 
become, in the hands of a belle. The girl blushed, 
and the officers joined in the laughter, and yet 
every one of them had doubtless been busy in 
teaching that little tell-tale animal this new de- 
velopment of character. 

It was delightful ground to ride over about Fort 
Riley. Ah ! what happy days they were, for at 
that time I had not the slightest realization of what 
Indian warfare was, and consequently no dread. 
We knew that the country they infested was many 



380 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

miles away, and we could ride in any direction we 
chose. The dogs would be aroused from the 
deepest sleep at the very sight of our riding cos- 
tumes, and by the time we were well into them 
and whip in hand, they leaped and sprang about 
the room, tore out on the gallery, and tumbled 
over one another and the furniture in racing back,, 
and such a din of barking and joyful whining as 
they set up — the noisier the better for my husband. 
He snapped his English whip to incite them, and 
bounded around crying out, "Whoop 'em up! 
whoop 'em up !" adding to the melee by a toot 
on the dog-horn he had brought from the Texas 
deer-hunts. All this excited the horses, and when 
I was tossed into the saddle amidst this turmoiU 
with the dogs leaping around the horses' heads, I 
hardly knew whether I was myself or the ven- 
turesome young woman who spends her life in 
taking airy flights through paper-covered circles 
in a saw-dust ring. It took some years for me to 
accustom myself to the wild din and hubbub of 
our starting for a ride or a hunt. As I have said 
before, I had lived quietly at home, and my dec- 
orous, suppressed father and mother never even 
spoke above a certain tone. The General's father, 
on the contrary, had rallied his sons with a hallo 
and resounding shouts from their boyhood. So 
the huUaballoo of all our merry startings was a 



A SPRINGY TURF. 



thing of my husband's early days, and added zest 
to every sport he undertook. 

Coming from Michigan, where there is a Uberal 
dispensation of swamp and quagmire, having been 
taught by dear experience that Virginia had 
quicksands and sloughs into which one could dis^ 
appear with great rapidity, and finally having 
experienced Texas with its bayous, baked with a 
deceiving crust of mud, and its rivers with quick- 
sand beds, very naturally I guided my horse 
around any lands that had even a depression. 
Indeed, he spoke volumes with his sensitive ears, 
as the turf darkened in hollows, and was ready 
enough to be guided by the rein on his satin-like 
neck, to the safer ground. It was a long time 
before I realized that all the Plains were safe. We 
chose no path, and stopped at no suspicion of a 
slough. Without a check on the rein, we flew 
over divide after divide, and it is beyond my pen 
to describe the wild sense of freedom that takes 
possession of one in the first buoyant knowledge 
that no impediment, seemingly, Hes between you 
and the setting sun. After one has ridden over 
conventional highways, the beaten path marked 
out by fences, hedges, bridges, etc., it is simply an 
impossibility to describe how the blood bounds in 
the veins at the freedom of an illimitable sea. 
No spongy, uncertain ground checks the course 



382 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

over the Plains ; it is seldom even damp, and the 
air is so exhilarating one feels as if he had never 
breathed a full breath before. Almost the first 
words General Sherman said to me out there 
were, " Child, you'll find the air of the Plains is 
like champagne," and so it surely was. Oh, the 
joy of taking in air without a taint of the city, or 
even the country, as we know it in farm life ! As 
we rode on, speaking enthusiastically of the fra- 
grance and purity of the atmosphere, our horses 
neighed and whinnied to each other, and snuffed 
the air, as if approving all that was said of that 
" land of the free.'^ My husband could hardly 
breathe, from the very ecstasy of realizing that 
nothing trammeled him. He scarcely left the 
garrison behind him, where he was bound by 
chains of form and ceremony — the inevitable lot 
of an officer, where all his acts are under surveil- 
lance, where he is obliged to know that every 
hour in the day he is setting an example — be- 
fore he became the wildest and most frolicsome 
of light-hearted boys. His horse and he were one, 
not only as he sat in the saddle a part of the ani- 
mal, swayed by every motion of the active, 
graceful beast, but such unison of spirit took 
possession of each, it was hard to believe that a 
human heart did not beat under the broad, 
splendid chest of the high-strung animal. 



A FEARLESS HORSEMAN. ■;^St, 

It were well if human hearts responded to our 
fondness, and came instantly to be en rapport 
with us, as did those dear animals when they flew 
with us out to freedom and frolic, over the di- 
vides that screened us from the conventional 
proprieties. My husband's horse had almost 
human ways of talking with him, as he leaned far 
out of the saddle and laid his face on the gallant 
animal's head, and there was a gleam in the eye, 
a proud little toss of the head, speaking back a 
whole world of affection. The General could ride 
hanging quite out of sight from the opposite side, 
one foot caught in the stirrup, his hand on the 
mane ; and it made no difference to his beloved 
friend, he took any mode that his master chose to 
cling to him as a matter of course, and curvetted 
and pranced in the loftiest, proudest way. His 
manner said as plainly as speech, " See what we 
two can do ! " I rarely knew him have a horse 
that did not soon become so pervaded with his 
spirit that they appeared to be absolutely one in 
feeling. I was obliged, usually, to submit to some 
bantering slur on my splendid Custis Lee. Per- 
haps a dash at first would carry the General and 
the dogs somewhat in advance. My side had a 
trick of aching if we started off on a gallop, and I 
was obliged to keep a tight rein on Custis Lee at 
first, as he champed at the bit, tossed his impa- 



384 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tient head, and showed every sign of ignominious 
shame. The General, as usual, called out, " Come 
on, old lady ! Chug up that old plug of yours ; 
I've got one orderly ; don't want another " — this 
because the soldier in attendance is instructed to 
ride at a certain distance in the rear. After a 
spurt of tremendous speed, back flew the master 
to beg me to excuse him ; he was ready now to 
ride slowly till "that side of mine came round to 
time," w^hich it quickly did, and then I revenged 
the insult on my swift Lee, and the maligner at 
last called out, " That's not so bad a nag, after all." 
The horses bounded from the springy turf as if 
they really hated the necessity of touching the 
sod at all. They were very well matched in 
speed, and as on we flew w^e were " neck by neck, 
stride by stride, never changing our place." Breath- 
less at last, horses, dogs and ourselves made a 
halt. The orderly wath his slow troop horse was 
a speck in the distance. Of course I had gone to 
pieces little by little, between the mad speed and 
rushing through the wind of the Plains. Those 
were ignominious days for women — thank fortune 
they are over! Custom made it necessary to dis- 
figure ourselves with the awkward water-fall, and, 
no matter how luxuriant the hair, it seemed a 
necessity to still pile up more. With many a 
wrathful opinion regarding the fashion, the General 



HORSES AS COMPANIONS. 385 

took the hairpins, net and switch, and thrust them 
into the breast of his coat, as he said, " to clear the 
decks for action for another race." It was enough 
that he offered to carry these barbarities of civiUza- 
tion for me, without my bantering him about his 
ridiculousness if some accidental opening of his 
coat in the presence of the officers, who were then 
strangers, revealed what he scoffingly called " dead 
women's hair." 

A fresh repinning, an ignoring of hairpins this 
time,regirting of saddles, some proud patting of the 
horses' quivering flanks, passing of the hand over 
the full veins of their necks, praise of the beautiful 
distended, blood-red nostrils, and up we leap for 
another race. If spur or whip had been used in 
speeding our horses, it would have spoiled the 
sport for me, as the effort and strain looks so 
cruelly like work ; but the animals were as im- 
patient for a run as w^e were to start them. It 
must be a rare moment of pleasure to all horse- 
lovers, to watch an animal flying over the ground, 
without an incentive save the love of motion born 
in the beast. When we came to certain smooth 
stretches on the road, where we were accustomed 
to give the horse the rein, they grew excited and 
impatient, and teased for the run if we chanced 
to be earnestly talking and forgot to take it. How 
fortunate is one who can ride a mythological 



386 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Pegasus as well as a veritable horse ! There is 
nothing left for the less gifted but to use others' 
words for our own enthusiasm. 

"Now we're off, like the winds, to the plains whence they came; 
And the rapture of motion is thrilling my frame ! 
On, on, speeds my courser, scarce printing the sod, 
Scarce crushing a daisy to mark where we trod; 
On, on, like a deer when the hounds' early bay 
Awakes the wild echoes, away and away! 
Still faster, still farther, he leaps at my cheer. 
Till the rush of the startled air whirs in my ear!" 

Buchanan Read not only made General Sheri- 
dan's splendid black horse immortal, but his grate- 
ful owner kept that faithful beast, when it was 
disabled, in a paddock at Leavenworth, and then, 
when age and old wounds ended his life, he per- 
petuated his memory by having the taxidermist 
set him up in the Military Museum at Governor's 
Island, that the boys of this day, to whom the war 
is only history, may remember what a splendid 
part a horse took in those days, when soldiers 
were not the only heroes. I thank a poet for 
having written thus for us to whom the horse is 
almost human. 

" I tell thee, stranger, that unto me 
The plunge of a fiery steed 
Is a noble thought— to the brave and free 
It is music, and breath, and majesty — 
'Tis the life of a noble deed; 
And the heart and the mind are in spirit allied 
In the charm of a morning's glorious ride." 




A SUSPENDED EQUESTRIENNE. 
387 



388 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

There was a long, smooth stretch of land be- 
yond Fort Riley, where we used to speed our 
horses, and it even now seems one of the fair spots 
of earth, it is so marked by happy hours. In real- 
ity it was a level plain without a tree, and the 
dried buffalo-grass had then scarcely a tinge of 
green. This neutral-tinted, monotonous surface 
continued for many unvarying miles. We could 
do as we chose after we had passed out of sight of 
the garrison, and our orderly, if he happened to 
have a decent horse, kept drawing the muscles of 
his face into a soldierly expression, trying not to be 
so undignified as to laugh at the gamesomeness, 
the frolic, of his commanding officer. What a re- 
lief for the poor fellow, in his uneventful life, to 
get a look at these pranks ! I can see him now, 
trymg to keep his head away and look unconscious, 
but his eyes turned in their sockets in spite of him 
and caught it all. Those eyes were wild with 
terror one day, when our horses were going full 
tilt, and the General with one powerful arm, lifted 
me out of my saddle and held me poised in the 
air for a moment. Our horses were so evenly 
matched in speed they were neck and neck, keep- 
ing close to each other, seemingly regardless of 
anything except the delight at the speed with 
which they left the country behind them. In the 
brief moment that I found myself suspended be- 



A SUDDEN ELEVATION. 389 

tween heaven and earth, I thought, with Ughtning 
rapidity, that I must chng to my bridle and keep 
control of my flying horse, and trust to good for- 
tune whether I alighted on his ear or his tail. 
The moment I was thus held aloft was an hour in 
uncertainty, but nothing happened, and it taught 
me to prepare for sudden raids of the commanding 
officer after that. I read of this feat in some novel, 
but was incredulous until it was successfully prac- 
ticed on me. The Custer men were given to what 
their Maryland father called " toting " us around. 
I've seen them pick up their mother and carry her 
over the house as if she weighed fifty instead of one 
hundred and fifty pounds. There was no chance 
for dignified anger with them. No matter how 
indignant I might be, or how loftily I might 
answer back, or try one of those eloquent silences 
to which we women sometimes resort in moments 
of wrath, I was snatched up by either my husband 
or Tom, and had a chance to commune wath the 
ceiling in my airy flight up and down stairs and 
through the rooms. 

One of our rides marked a day with me, for it 
was the occasion of a very successful exchange of 
horses. My husband used laughingly to refer to 
the transaction as unfortunate for him ; but as it 
was at his suggestion, I clung with pertinacity to 
the bargain. My horse, Custis Lee, being a pacer. 



390 TEX TING ON THE PLAINS. 

my husband felt in the fascination of that smooth, 
swift gait I might be so wedded to it I could never 
endure anything else ; so he suggested, while we 
were far out on our evening ride, that we change 
saddles and try each other's horse. I objected, for 
though I could ride a spirited horse when I had 
come to know him, I dreaded the early stages of 
acquaintance. Besides, Phil was a high-strung 
colt, and it was a venturesome experiment to try 
him with a long riding-skirt, loaded with shot, 
knocking about his legs. At that time the safe 
fashion of short habits was not in vogue, and the 
high winds of Kansas left no alternative to load- 
ing our skirts. We kept opening the hem and in- 
serting the little shot-bags as long as we lived 
there. Fortunately for me, I was persuaded into 
trying the colt. As soon as he broke into a long 
swinging trot, I was so enchanted and so hilarious 
with the motion, that I mentally resolved never to 
yield the honor temporarily conferred upon me. 
It was the beginning of an eternal vigilance for my 
husband. The animal was so high-strung, so 
quick, notwithstanding he was so large, that he 
sprang from one side of the road to the other on 
all fours, without the slightest warning. After I 
had checked him and recovered my breath, we 
looked about for a cause for this fright, and found 
only the dark earth where slight moisture had re- 



"FHW CHANGES HANDS. 



;9i 



mained from a shower. In order to get the 
smoothest trotting- out of him, I rode with a 
snaffle, and I never knew the General's eyes to be 
off him for more than an instant. The officers 
protested, and implored my husband to change 
back and give me the pacer. But his pride was 
up, and he enjoyed seeing the animal on fire with 
delight at doing his best under a light weight, and 
he had genuine love for the brute that, though so 
hard to manage in his hands, responded to my 
lightest touch or to my voice. 

As time advanced and our regiment gained 
better and better horseflesh, it was a favorite 
scheme to pit Phil against new-comers. We all 
started out, a gay cavalcade of noisy, happy 
people, and the stranger was given the post of 
honor next to the wife of the commanding officer. 
Of course he thought nothing of this, as he had 
been at the right of the hostess at dinner. The 
other officers saw him take his place as if it were 
the most natural thing in the world, but in reality 
it was a deep-laid plot. Phil started off with so 
little effort that our visitor thought nothing of 
keeping pace for a while, and then he began to 
use his spurs. As my colt took longer and longer 
strides, there was triumph in the faces of the offi- 
cers, and a big gleam of delight in the General's 
eye. Then came the perplexity in my guest's face 



392 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



at a trotter outdoing the most splendid specimen 
of a loping horse, as he thought. A little glance 
from my husband, which incited me to give a sign 
and a low word or two that only Phil and I under- 
stood, and off we flew, leaving the mystified man 
urging his nag in vain. It was not quite my idea 
of hospitality so to introduce a new-comer to our 
horses' speed ; but then he was not a transient 
guest, and the sooner he knew all our "tricks and 
our manners " the better, while it was beyond my 
power of self-denial to miss seeing the proud tri- 
umph in my husband's eyes as he rode up and 
patted the colt and received the little return of 
affection from the knowing beast. Phil went on im- 
proving in gait and swiftness as he grew in years, 
and I once had the courage, afterward, to speed him 
on the Government race-track at Fort Leaven- 
worth, though to this day I cannot understand 
how I got up to concert pitch ; and I could never 
be induced to try such an experiment again. I 
suppose I often made as good time, trotting beside 
my husband's horse, but to go alone was some- 
thing I was never permitted to do on a roadway. 
The General and brother Tom connived to get 
this bit of temporary courage out of me by an off- 
hand conversation, as we rode toward the track, 
regarding what Phil might be made to do under 
the best circumstances, which I knew meant the 



AN EXCITING RIDE. ^^^ 

-snaffle-rein, a light weight, and my hand, which 
the General had trained to be steady. I tried to 
beg off and suggest either one of them for the 
trial ; but the curb which they were obliged to use, 
as Phil was no easy brute to manage with them, 
made him break his gait, and a hundred and sev- 
enty pounds on his back was another obstacle to 
speed. It ended in my being teased into the 
experiment, and though I called out, after the first 
half-mile, that I could not breathe any longer, the 
air rushed into my lungs so rapidly, they implored 
and urged by gesture and enthusiastic praise, until 
I made the mile they had believed Phil equal to 
in three minutes. 

I wieh I could describe what delight my hus- 
band took in his horse life, what hours of recrea- 
tion and untiring pleasure he got out of our com- 
panionship with Jack Rucker, Phil and Custis Lee. 
On that day we three and our orderly were alone 
on the track, and such a merry, noisy, care-forget- 
ting three as we were ! the General, with his stop- 
watch in hand, cheering me, urging the horse 
wildly, clapping his hands, and hallooing with 
joy as the animal responded to his expectation. 
Phil's coming up to their boasts and anticipations 
was just a little episode in our life that went to 
prove what a rare faculty he had of getting much 
out of little, and of how persistently the boy in 



)94 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



him cropped out as soon as an opportunity came 
to throw care aside. It is one of the results of a 
Ufe of deprivation, that pleasures, when they come, 
are rarities, and the enjoyment is intensified. In 
our life they lasted so short a time that we had 
no chance to learn the meaning of satiety. 

One of the hardest trials, in our first winter with 
the regiment, was that arising from the constantly 
developing tendency to hard drinking. Some who 
came to us had held up for a time, but they were 
not restricted in the volunteer service, as a man 
who fought well was forgiven much else that 
came, in the rare intervals of peace. In the new 
state of aff'airs, as went the first few months of the 
regiment, so would it go for all time. There was 
a regiment stationed in New Mexico at that time, 
the record of which was shameful. We heard of 
its career by every overland train that came into 
our post, and from officers who went out on duty. 
General Sherman said that, with such a set of 
drunkards, the regiment, officers and all, should be 
mustered out of the service. Anything, then, rather 
than let our Seventh follow such a course. But I 
must not leave the regiment at that point in its 
history. Eventually it came out all right, ably 
officered and well soldiered, but it was the terror 
of the country in 1867. While General Custer 
steadily fought against drunkenness, he was not 



ALONE ON A BA TTLE-FIELD. 



595 



remorseless or unjust. I could cite one instance 
after another, to prove with what patience he strove 
to reclaim some who were, I fear, hopeless when 
they joined us. His own greatest battles were 
not fought in the tented field ; his most glori- 
ous combats were those waged in daily, hourly, 
fights on a more hotly contested field than was 
ever known in common warfare. The truest 
heroism is not that which goes out supported by 
strong battalions and reserve artillery. It is when 
a warrior for the right enters into the conflict alone, 
and dares to exercise his will, in defiance of some 
established custom in which lies a lurking, deadly 
peril or sin. I have known my husband to almost 
stand alone in his opinion regarding temperance, 
in a garrison containing enough people to make a 
good-sized village. He was thoroughly unosten- 
tatious about his convictions, and rarely said 
much ; but he stood to his fixed purpose, purely 
from horror of the results of drinking. I would 
not imply that in garrison General Custer was the 
only man invariably temperate. There were some 
on pledge ; some temperate because they paid such 
a physical penalty by actual illness that they 
could not drink ; some restrained because their best 
loved comrade, weak in his own might, " swore 
off " on consideration that the stronger one of the 
two backed him up ; some (God bless them !) re- 



396 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

fused because the woman they loved grieved, and 
was afraid of even one friendly glass. What I mean 
is, that the general custom, against which there is 
little opposition in any life, is, either to indulge in 
the social glass, or look leniently upon the habit. 
Without preaching or parading his own strength 
in having overcome the habit. General Custer 
stood among the officers and men as firm an advo- 
cate of temperance as any evangelist whose life is 
devoted to the cause. 

I scarcely think I would have realized the con- 
stantly recurring temptations of my husband's life, 
had I not been beside him when he fought these 
oft-repeated battles. The pleasure he had in con- 
vivial life, the manner in which men and women 
urged him to join them in enjoyment of the spark- 
ling wine, was enough to have swept every resolu- 
tion to the winds. Sometimes, the keen blade of 
sarcasm, though set with jewels of wit and appar- 
ent badinage, added a cut that my ears, so quick- 
ened to my husband's hard position, heard and 
grieved over. But he laughed off the carefully 
concealed thrust. When we were at home in our 
own room, if I asked him, blazing anew with 
wrath at such a stab, how he kept his temper, he 
replied, "Why notice it? Don't I know what I've 
been through to gain my victory ? That fellow, 
you must remember, has fought and lost, and 



RESE.YTIXG AN INSUL T. 397 

knows in his soul he'll go to the dogs if he doesn't 
hold up, and, Libbie, he can't do it, and I am 
sorry for him." Our brother Tom was less patient, 
less forbearing, for in one of his times of pledge, 
when the noble fellow had given his word not to 
taste a drop for a certain season if a man he loved, 
and about whom he was anxious, would do the 
same, he was sneered at by a brother officer, with 
gibes at his supposed or attempted superiority, 
Tom leaped across the table in the tent where 
they sat at dinner, and shook up his assailant in a 
very emphatic way. I laugh in remembrance of 
his choler, and am proud of it now. I, as " gentle- 
woman," descended from a hne of decorous gen- 
tlemen and ladies, ought to be horrified at one 
man's seizing another by the collar and pouncing 
upon him, regardless of the Marquis of Queens- 
bury rules. But I know that circumstances alter 
cases, and in our life an occasional good shaking 
was better than the slow justice of a tedious 
court-martial. 

The General would not smile, but there was a 
noticeable twisting of his mustache, and he took 
himself out of the way to conceal his feelings, 
when I pointed my discerning finger at him and 
said, " You're laughing, your own self, and you 
think Tom was right, even if you don't say a word, 
and look so dreadfully commandery-officery at 



198 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



both of us ! " The General did not keep himself 
aloof, and sometimes, in convivial scenes, when he 
joined in the increasing hilarity, was so infused with 
the growing artificial jovialty, and grew jollier 
and jollier, that he was accused himself of bemg 
the wildest drinker of them all. But some one 
was sure to speak up and say, as the morning ap- 
proached, "I have sat beside Custer the night 
through, and if he's intoxicated it's over water, for 
he has not tasted a drop of wine — more loss to 
him, I say." After a campaign, his nose was fiery 
red from the summer's exposure, and some one 
said, " If Custer wishes to pass for a temperance 
man, he'd better take in his sign." When this was 
reported to us, the General sang an old song, to 
drown the spluttering of his indignant better 

half— 

"Nose, nose, jolly red nose," 

to an appropriate bacchanalian tune, and I found 
him smoothing caressingly this feature of his face; 
telling me that people might scoff at its color, but 
its stock had gone up with him. Some one once 
told me that distinguished men of strong charac- 
ter had almost invariably big noses. I noted that, 
and counted noses when we found ourselves in an 
assembly at the East with people of note, and as 
my husband passed me, I was guilty of whisper- 
ing that I had gone over the assembly, and noted 



ICE INSTEAD OF WINE. 



399 



the number down in my memory, and that ours 
out-shone and out-sized them all. After that, no 
thrust at the tint so suspiciously red after a scout 
disturbed him in the least. Only a short time 
before the final battle, he dined in New York, at 
a house where General McDowell was also a 
guest. When no one else could hear, he told me, 
with a warning not to talk of it, that he had some 
one to keep him company, and described the bowl 
of ice that stood in the midst of the untouched 
semicircle of glasses before General McDowell, 
and how the ice seemed just as satisfactory as any 
of the rare beverages. We listened once to John 
B. Gough, and the General's enthusiasm over his 
earnestness and his eloquence was enhanced by 
the well-known fact of his failures, and the plucky 
manner in which he started anew. Everybody 
cries over Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle, even if 
they have never encountered drunkenness, and my 
husband wept Hke a child because of his intense 
sympathy for the weakness of the poor tempted 
soul, harrowed as he was by a Xantippe. 

If women in civil life were taken among men, 
as army women are, in all sorts of festivities, they 
would get a better idea of what strength of pur- 
pose it requires to carry out a principle. At some 
army posts the women go to the sutler's store 
with their husbands, for billiards or amusements. 



400 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



There is a separate room for the soldiers, so we 
see nothing of those poor fellows who never can 
stay sober. The sutler's is not only the store, 
but it is the club-house for the garrison, and I 
have known posts where the officers were so 
guarded about their drinking, that women could 
go among them and join in any amusement with- 
out being liable to the distress that the sight of 
an intoxicated man invariably gives to a sensitive 
woman. If I saw drunken soldiers reeling off 
after pay-day, it was the greatest possible relief to 
me to know, that out of hundreds only a few were 
married, as but a certain number of the laun- 
dresses were allowed to a company. So no 
woman's heart was going to be wrung by unsteady 
steps approaching her door, and the sight of the 
vacant eyes of a weak husband. It took away 
half the sting and shock, to know that a soldier's 
spree was not one that recoiled on an innocent 
woman. 

As I look back upon our life, I do not believe 
there ever was any path so difficult as those men 
on the frontier trod. Their failures, their fights, 
their vacillations, all were before us, and it was 
an anxious life to be watching who won and who 
lost in those moral warfares. You could not sepa- 
rate yourself from the interests of one another. 
It was a network of friendships that became more 



BESETTING TEMPTATIONS. 4OI 

and more interwoven by common hardships, dep- 
rivations, dangers, by isolation and the daily 
sharing of joys and troubles. I am thankful for 
the certainty that there is some one who scores all 
our fights and all our victories ; for on His records 
will be written the story of the thorny path over 
which an officer walked if he reached the goal. 

Women shielded in homes, supported by ex- 
ample, unconscious of any temptation save the 
mildest, will realize with me what it was to watch 
the quivering mouth of a man who voluntarily 
admitted that until he was fifty he knew he was in 
hourly peril of being a drunkard. The tears blind 
me as I go back in retrospection and think over 
the men that warred against themselves. - \ 

In one respect, there never was such a life as 
ours ; it was eminently one of partings. How 
natural, then, that the last act before separa- 
tion be one of hospitable generosity ! How 
little we had to offer ! It was often almost an 
impossibility to get up a good dinner. Then 
we had so many coming to us from a distance, 
that our welcome could not be followed up 
by any entertainment worthy of the name. 
Besides, there were promotions to celebrate, an 
occasional son and heir to toast, birthdays occur- 
ring so often, and nothing in the world that an- 
swered for an expression of hospitality and good 



402 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



feeling but an old straw demijohn behind the door. 
It was surprising what pertinacious lives the demi- 
johns of the garrison had. The driver of the 
wagon containing the few appointments of an 
officer's outfit, was just as careful of the familiar 
friend as one could wish servants to be with the 
lares and penates of an aesthetic household. If 
he was rewarded with a drink from the sacred 
demijohn, after having safely preserved it over 
muddy roads, where the mules jerked the prairie- 
schooner out of ruts, and where, except for a pro- 
tecting hand, the contents would have saturated 
the w^agon, he was thankful. But such was his 
reverence for what he considered the most valu- 
able possession of the whole wagon, virtue alone 
would have been sufficient reward. When in the 
regimental movings the crockery (the very 
heaviest that is made) was smashed, the furniture 
broken, carpets, curtains, clothes and bedding 
mildewed and torn, the old demijohn neither 
broke, spilled nor suffered any injury by exposure 
to the elements. It was, in the opinion of our 
lovers of good whisky, a " survival of the fittest." 
It never came to be an old. story with me, that 
in this constant, familiar association with drinkings, 
the General and those of his comrades who ab- 
stained could continue to exercise a marvelous 
self-control. I could not help constantly speaking 



AN UNLIMITED TETHER. 4O3 

to my husband of what he went through ; and it 
seemed to me that no Uberty could be too great to 
extend to men who, always keeping their heads, 
were clear as to what they were about. The do- 
mestic lariat of a cavalryman might well be drawn 
in, if the women waiting at home were uncertain 
whether the brains of their liege lords would be 
muddled when absent from their influence. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

"GOOD society" AN EMBARRASSING POSITION FOR 

AN OFFICER THE GENERAL EXTRICATES HIM A 

MOCK TRIAL VARIETIES OF CHARACTER LESSONS- 

IN HORSEMANSHIP A DISGRACED CAVALRY-WOMAN 

GOSSIP A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN 

WAR ON A DRESSING-GOWN. 

TT was well we had our horses at Fort Riley for 
recreation, as walking was almost out of the 
question in autumn. The wind blew unceasingly 
all the five years we were in Kansas, but it seemed 
to do its wildest work in autumn. No one had 
told US of its incessant activity, and I watched for 
it to quiet down for days after our arrival, and 
grew restless and dull for want of exercise, but 
dared not go out. As the post was on a plateau, 
the wind from the two river valleys swept over it 
constantly. The flag was torn into ribbons in no 
time, and the storm-flag, made smaller and used 
in rainy weather, had to be raised a good deal, 
while the larger and handsomer one was being 
mended. We found that the other women of the 

garrison, who were there when we arrived, ven- 

404 



VOLUMINOUS DRAPERY. 



405 



tured out to see one another, and even crossed the 
parade-ground when it was almost impossible to 
keep on one's feet. It seems to date very far back, 
when I recall that our dresses then measured five 
yards around, and were gathered as full as could 
be pressed into the waist-band. These seven 
breadths of skirt flew out in advance of us, if they 
did not lift themselves over our heads. My skirts 
wrapped themselves around my husband's ankles, 
and rendered locomotion very difficult for us both, 
if we tried to take our evening stroll. Rethought 
out a plan, which he helped me to carry into effect, 
by cutting bits of lead in small strips, and these I 
sewed into the hem. Thus loaded down, we took 
our constitutional about the post, and outwitted 
the elements, which at first bade fair to keep us 
perpetually housed. 

There was very little social life in garrison that 
winter. The officers were busy studying tactics, 
and accustoming themselves to the new order of 
affairs, so very different from their volunteer ex- 
perience. Had not everything been so novel, I 
should have felt disappointed in my first associa- 
tion with the regular army in garrison. I did not 
then consider that the few old officers and their 
families were really the regular army, and so was 
somewhat disheartened regarding our future asso- 
ciates. As fast as our own officers arrived, a 



4o6 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



part of the regiment that had garrisoned Fort 
Riley before we came, went away ; but it soon be- 
came too late in the season to send the remainder. 
The post was therefore crowded. The best man- 
ners with which all had made their debut wore off, 
and some jangling began. Some drank too 
freely and were placed under arrest, or released if 
they went on pledge. Nothing was said, of 
course, if they were sober enough for duty ; but 
there were some hopeless cases from the first. For 
instance, a new appointee made his entrance into 
our parlor, when paying the visit that military eti- 
quette requires, by falling in at the door, and 
after recovering an upright position, proceeded to 
entangle himself in his sword again, and tumble 
into a chair. I happened to be alone, and was, of 
course, very much frightened. In the afternoon 
the officers met in one of their quarters, and drew 
up resolutions that gave the new arrival the choice 
of a court-martial or his resignation before night ; 
and by evening he had written out the papers re- 
signing his commission. Another fine-looking 
man, whom the General worked long and faith- 
fully to make a sober officer, had really some good 
instincts. He was so glad to get into our home 
circle, and was so social, telling the drollest stories 
of far Western life, where he had lived formerly, 
that I became greatly interested in his efforts at 



A THANKSGIVING DINNER. 407 

reformation. He was almost the first to be court- 
martialed for drunkenness on duty, and that was 
always a grief to us ; but in those early days of 
our regiment's history, arrest, imprisonment and 
trial had to go on much of the time. The officer to 
whom I refer was getting into and out of difficulty 
incessantly. He repented in such a frank, regretful 
sort of way, that my husband kept faith in his final 
reformation long after it seemed hopeless. One day 
I asked him to dinner. It was Thanksgiving, and 
on those days we tried to select the officers that 
talked most to us of their homes and parents. To 
my dismay, our reprobate came into the room with 
very uncertain gait. The other men looked anx- 
iously at him. My husband was not in the parlor. 
I thought of other instances where these signs of 
intoxication had passed away in a little while, and 
tried to ignore his condition. He was sober 
enough to see the concerned look in his comrades' 
faces, and brought the tears to my eyes by walk- 
ing up to me and saying, " Mrs. Custer, I'm sorry, 
but I think it would be best for me to go home." 
Who could help being grieved for a man so frank 
and humble over his failings ? There were six 
years of such vicissitudes in this unfortunate man's 
life, varied by brave conduct in the Indian cam- 
paigns, before the General gave him up. He vio- 
lated, at last, some social law that was considered 



4o8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

an outrage beyond pardon, which compelled his 
departure from the Seventh. That first winter 
while the General was trying to enforce one fact 
upon the new-comers, that the Seventh must be a 
sober regiment, it was a difficult and anything 
but pleasant experience. 

Very few of the original appointments remained 
after a few years. Some who served on to the 
final battle of 1876, went through many struggles 
in gaining mastery of themselves. The General 
believed in them, and they were such splendid 
fighters, and such fine men when there was any- 
thing to occupy them, I know that my husband 
appreciated with all his soul what trials they went 
through, in facing the monotony of frontier life. 
Indeed, he was himself enduring some hours of 
torture from restlessness and inactivity. It is 
hard to imagine a greater change than from the 
wild excitement of the Virginia campaigns, the 
final scenes of the war, to the dullness of Fort 
Riley. Oh ! how I used to feel when my hus- 
band's morning duties at the office were over, and 
he walked the floor of our room, saying, " Libbie, 
what shall I do ?" There were no books to speak 
of, for the Seventh was then too new a regiment 
to purchase company libraries, as we did later. 
. . . My husband never cared much for 
current novels, and these were almost the sole 



4IO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

literature of the households at that time. At 
every arrival of the mail, there v^^as absolute con- 
tentment for a while. The magazines and news- 
papers were eagerly read, and I used to discover 
that even the advertisements were scanned. If 
the General was caught at this, and accused of it, 
he slid behind his paper in mock humility, peep- 
ing roguishly from one side when a voice, pitched 
loftily, inquired whether reading advertisements 
was more profitable than talking with one's wife ? 
It was hard enough, though, when the heaps of 
newspapers lay on the floor all devoured, and one 
so devoted to them as he was condemned to wait 
the slow arrival of another mail. The Harper s 
Bazar fashion-pages were not scorned in that 
dearth of reading, by the men about our fireside. 
We had among us a famous newspaper-reader ; 
the men could not outstrip her in extracting 
everything that the paper held, and the General 
delighted in hunting up accounts of " rapscal- 
lions " from her native State, cutting out the 
paragraphs, and sending them to her by an or- 
derly. But his hour of triumph was brief, for the 
next mail was sure to contain an account of either 
a Michigan or an Ohio villain, and the prompt- 
ness with which General Custer was made aware 
of the vagabondage of his fellow-citizens was 
highly appreciated by all of us. Fie had this dis- 



NEWSPAPER DEVOTEES. 



411 



advantage : he was a native of Ohio, and appointed 
to the MiUtary Academy from there, and that 
State claimed him, and very proud we were to 
have them do so ; but Michigan was the State of 
his adoption during the war, he having married 
there and it being the home of his celebrated 
" Michigan brigade." . . . He was enabled, 
by that bright woman's industry, to ascertain 
what a large share of the population of those 
States were adepts in crime, as no trifling account, 
or even a pickpocket, was overlooked. I remem- 
ber how we laughed at her one day. This friend 
of ours was not in the least sensational, she was 
the very incarnation of delicate refinement. All 
her reading (aside from the search for Ohio and 
Michigan villains in the papers) was of the lofti- 
est type ; but the blood rose in wild billows over 
her sweet face when her son declared his mother 
such a newspaper devotee that he had caught 
her reading the " personals." We knew it was a 
fib ; but it proves to what lengths a person might 
go from sheer desperation, when stranded on the 
Plains. 

Fortunately, I was not called much from home, 
as there were few social duties that winter, and we 
devised all sorts of trumpery expedients to vary 
our life. There was usually a wild game of romps 
before the day was ended. We had the strangest 



412 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

neighbors. A family lived on each floor, but the 
walls were not thick, as the Government had 
wasted no material in putting up our plain quar- 
ters. We must have set their nerves on edge, I 
suppose, for while we tore up stairs and down, 
using the furniture for temporary barricades 
against each other, the dogs barking and racing 
around, glad to join in the fracas, the din was 
frightful. 

The neighbors — not belonging to our regiment, 
I am thankful to say, having come from a circle 
where the husband brings the wife to terms by 
brute force — in giving a minute description of the 
sounds that issued from our quarters, accounted 
for the melee to those of the garrison they could 
get to listen, by saying that the commanding 
officer was beating his wife. While I was inclined 
to resent such accusations, they struck the Gene- 
ral very differently. He thought it was intensely 
funny, and the gossip passed literally in at one 
ear and out at the other, though it dwelt with him 
long enough to suggest something about the good 
discipline a man might have if the Virginia law, 
never repealed, were now in vogue. I felt sure it 
would fare badly with me ; for though the dimen- 
sions of the stick with which a man is permitted 
to beat his wife are limited to the size of the hus- 
band's finger, my husband's hands, though in good 



AFFECTED GENTILITY. 413 

proportion, had fingers the bones of which were 
unusually large. These strange fingers were not 
noticeable until one took hold of them; but if 
they were carefully studied, with the old English 
law of Virginia in mind, there well might be a 
family mutiny. I tried to beg off from further 
visits to certain families of this stamp, but never 
succeeded; the General insisted on my going 
everywhere. One of the women asked me one 
day if I rose early : Not knowing why she asked, 
I replied that I feared it was often 9 o'clock 
before we awoke, whereupon she answered, in an 
affected voice, that "she never rose early, it was 
so plebeian." 

It was very discouraging, this first encounter 
with what I supposed would be my life-long asso- 
ciates. There were many political appointments 
in the army then. Each State was entitled to its 
quota, and they were frequently given for favor- 
itism, regardless of soldierly qualities. There 
were also a good many non-commissioned officers, 
who, having done good service during the war, 
were given commissions in the new regiments. 
For several years it was difficult to arrange every- 
thing so satisfactorily in social life that no one's 
feelings would be hurt. The unvarying rule, 
which my husband considered should not be vio- 
lated by any who truly desired harmony, was to 



414 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



visit every one in our circle, and exclude no one 
from invitations to our house, unless for positively 
disgraceful conduct. 

We heard, from other posts, of the most amusing 
and sometimes the most uncomfortable of expe- 
riences. If I knew any one to whom this incident 
occurred, I should not venture to make use of it 
as an example of the embarrassing situations in 
the new order of affairs in the reorganized army. 
The story is true ; but the names, if I ever knew 
them, have long since faded out of memory. 
One of the Irish laundresses at a Western post 
was evidently infatuated with army life, as she 
was the widow of a volunteer officer — doubtless 
some old soldier of the regular army, who held a 
commission in one of the regiments during the 
war — and the woman drew the pension of a 
major's widow. Money, therefore, could not 
have been the inducement that brought her back 
to a frontier post. At one time she left her fasci- 
nating clothes-line and went into the family of an 
officer, to cook, but was obliged to leave from 
illness. Her place was filled satisfactorily, and 
when she recovered and came back to the officer's 
wife, she was told that the present cook was en- 
tirely satisfactory, but she might yet find a place, 
as another officer's wife (whose husband had been 
an enlisted man, and had lately been appointed 



SURPRISE AT SURROUNDINGS. 



415 



an officer in the regular regiment stationed there) 
needed a cook. It seems that this officer's wife 
also had been a laundress at one time, and the 
woman applying for work squared herself off in 
an independent manner, placed her arms akimbo, 
and announced her platform : " Mrs. Blank, I 
ken work for a leddy, but I can't go there ; there 

was a time when Mrs. and I had our toobs 

side by side." 

How often, in that first winter, I thought of my 
father's unstinted praise of the regular army, as 
he had known it at Sackett's Harbor and at De- 
troit, in Michigan's early days. I could not but 
wonder what he would think, to be let down in 
the midst of us. He used to say, in reference to 
my future, " Daughter, marrying into the army, 
you will be poor always ; but I count it infinitely 
preferable to riches with inferior society. It con- 
soles me to think you will be always associated 
with people of refinement." Meanwhile, the Gen- 
eral was never done begging me to be silent 
about any new evidences of vulgarity. There 
were several high-bred women at Fort Riley ; but 
they were so discreet I never knew but that they 
had been accustomed to such associations, until 
after the queer lot had departed and we dared to 
speak confidentially to one another. 

Soon after the officers began to arrive in the 



4i6 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



autumn, an enlisted man, whom the General had 
known about in the regular army, reported 
for duty. He had re-enlisted in the Seventh, 
hoping ultimately for a commission. He was. 
soldierly in appearance, from his long experience 
in military life, and excellently well versed in 
tactics and regimental discipline. On this account 
he was made sergeant-major, the highest non- 
commissioned officer of a regiment ; and, at his 
request, the General made application almost at 
once for his appointment as a lieutenant in the 
Seventh Cavalry. The application was granted, 
and the sergeant-major went to Washington to 
be examined. The examining board was com- 
posed of old and experienced officers, who were 
reported to be opposed to the appointment of en- 
listed men. At any rate, the applicant was asked 
a collection of questions that were seemingly un- 
answerable. I only remember one, "What does a 
regiment of cavalry weigh ? " Considering the 
differences in the size of officers, men and horses, 
it would seem as if a correct answer were im- 
possible. The sergeant-major failed, and returned 
to our post with ,the hopelessness before him of 
five years of association with men in the ranks ; 
for there is no escaping the whole term of enlist- 
ment, unless it is found that a man is under age. 
But the General did not give up. He encouraged 



A SOLDIER PROMOTED. 4 1 7 

the disappointed man to hope, and when he was 
ordered before the board himself, he went to the 
Secretary of War and made personal application 
for the appointment. Vi^ashington was then full 
of men and their friends, clamoring for the vacan- 
cies in the new regiments ; but General Custer 
was rarely in Washington, and was guarded in 
not making too many appeals, so he obtained 
the promise, and soon afterward the sergeant- 
major replaced the chevrons with shoulder-straps. 
Then ensued one of those awkward situations, that 
seem doubly so in a life where there is such marked 
distinction in the social standing of an officer and 
a private ; and some of the Seventh Cavalry made 
the situation still more embarrassing by conspicu- 
ous avoidance of the new lieutenant, carefully 
ignoring him except where official relations ex- 
isted. This seemed doubly severe, as they knew 
of nothing in the man's conduct, past or present, 
to justify them in such behavior. He had borne 
himself with dignity as sergeant-major, living very 
much to himself, and performing every duty punc- 
tiliously. Shortly before, he had been an officer like 
themselves in the volunteer service, and this social 
ostracism, solely on account of a few months of ser- 
vice as an enlisted man, was absurd. They went 
back to his early service as a soldier, determined 
to show him that he was not "to the manner born." 



41 8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The single men had estabUshed a mess, and each 
bachelor officer who came was promptly called 
upon and duly invited to join them at table. There 
was literally no other place to be fed. There were 
no cooks to be had in that unsettled land, and if 
there had been servants to hire, the exorbitant 
wages would have consumed a lieutenant's pay. 
There were enough officers in the bachelors' mess 
to carry the day against the late sergeant-major. 
My husband was much disturbed by this discour- 
teous conduct ; but it did not belong to the prov- 
ince of the commanding officer, and he was careful 
to keep the line of demarkation between social 
and official affairs distinct. Yet it did not take 
long for him to think a way out of the dilemma. 
He came to me to ask if I would be willing to 
have him in our family temporarily, and, of course, 
it ended in the invitation being given. In the 
evening, when our quarters filled up with the 
bachelor officers, they found the lieutenant whom 
they had snubbed, established as one of the com- 
manding officer's family. He remained as one of 
us until the officers formed another mess as their 
number increased, and the new lieutenant was in- 
vited to join them. This was not the end of Gen- 
eral Custer's marked regard for him, and as long 
as he lived he showed his unswerving friendship, 
and, in ways that the officer never knew, kept up 



LOYALTY TO FRIENDS. 



419 



his disinterested loyalty, making me sure, as 
years advanced, that he was worthy of the old 
adage, " Once a friend, always a friend." Until 
he was certain that there was duplicity and in- 
gratitude, or that worst of sins, concealed enmity, 
he kept faith and friendships intact. At that time 
there was every reason in the world for an officer 
whose own footing was uncertain, and who owed 
everything to my husband, to remain true to him. 
Many of the officers were learning to ride, as 
they had either served in the infantry during the 
war, or were appointed from civil life, and came 
from all sorts of vocations. It would seem that 
hardly half of the number then knew how to sit 
or even to mount a horse, and the grand and lofty 
tumbling that winter kept us in a constant state 
of merriment. It was too bad to look on and 
laugh ; but for the life of me I could not resist 
every chance I had to watch them clambering up 
their horse's side, tying themselves hopelessly in 
their sabres, and contorting their heels so wildly 
that the restive animal got the benefit of a spur in 
unexpected places, as likely in his neck as in his 
flank. One officer, who came to us from the 
merchant marine, used to insist upon saying to 
his brother officers, when off duty and experiment- 
ing with his steed, " If you don't think I am a 
sailor, see me shin up this horse's foreleg." 



420 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Some grew hot and wrathy if laughed at, and 
that increased our fun. Others were good-natured, 
even coming into the midst of us and deHberately 
narrating the number of times the horse had either 
shpped from under them, turned them off over 
his head, or wiped them off by running against a 
fence or tree-trunk. Occasionally somebody tried 
to hide the fact that he had been thrown, and then 
there was high carnival over the misfortune. The 
ancient rule, that had existed as far back as the 
oldest officer could remember, was, that a basket 
of champagne was the forfeit of a first fall. Many 
hampers were emptied that winter ; but as there 
were so many to share the treat (and I am inclined 
to think, also, it was native champagne, from 
St. Louis), I don't remember any uproarious 
results, except the natural wild spirits of fun-lov- 
ing people. After the secret was out and the for- 
feit paid, there was much more courage among 
the officers in letting the mishaps be known. They 
did not take their nags off into gulleys where 
they were hidden from the post, and have it out 
alone, but tumbled off in sight of the galleries of 
our quarters, and made nothing of a whole after- 
noon of voluntary mounting and decidedly invol- 
untary dismounting. One of the great six-footers 
among us told me his beast had tossed him off 
half a dozen times in one ride, but he ended by 



A confession: 



421 



conquering. He daily fought a battle with his 
horse, and, in describing the efforts to unseat him, 
said that at last the animal jumped into the creek. 
How I admired his pluck and the gleam in his 
eye ; and what a glimpse that determination to 
master gave of his successful future ! for he won 
in resisting temptation, and conquered in making 
himself a soldier, and his life, though short, was 
a triumph. 

I am obliged to confess that to this day I owe 
a basket of champagne, for I belonged to those 
that went off the horse against their will and then 
concealed the fact. My husband and one of his 
staff were riding with me one day, and asked me 
to go on in advance, as they wanted to talk over 
something that was not of interest to me. I for- 
got to keep watch of my fiery steed, and when he 
took one of those mad jumps from one side of 
the road to the other, at some imaginary obstacle, 
not being on guard I lost balance, and found my^ 
self hanging to the saddle. There was nothing 
left for me but an ignominious slide, and I landed 
in the dust. The General found Phil trotting 
riderless toward him, was terribly frightened, 
and rode furiously toward where I was. To save 
him needless alarm, I called out, '' All right !" 
from my lowly position, and was really quite un- 
harmed, save my crushed spirits. No one can 



422 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

serve in the cavalry and not feel humiliated by a 
fall. I began to implore the two not to tell, and 
in their relief at my escape from serious hurt they 
promised. But for weeks they made my life a 
burden to me, by direct and indirect allusions to 
the accident when a group of us were together. 
They brought little All Right, the then famous 
Japanese acrobat, into every conversation, and 
the General was constantly wondering, in a seem- 
ingly innocent manner, " how an old campaigner 
could be unseated, under any circumstances." It 
would have been better to confess and pay the 
penalty, than to live thus under the sword of 
Damocles. Still, I should have deprived my 
husband of a world of amusement, and every 
joke counted in those dull days, even when one 
was himself the victim. 

The Board in Washington then examining the 
officers of the new regiments, called old and new 
alike ; but in the General's case, as in that of most 
of the officers who had seen service before the war, 
or were West Point graduates, it was but a form, 
and he was soon back in our post. 

He began then a fashion that he always kept up 
afterward, of having regular openings of his trunk 
for my benefit. I was as interested in the contents 
as any child. First putting me under promise to 
remain in one spot without " peeking," as the chil- 



A PLEASANT SURPRISE. 423 

dren say, he took out from the trunk in our room 
article after article for me. They comprised every- 
thing a woman could wear, from gowns to stock- 
ings, with ribbons and hats. If all the gowns he 
brought were not made, he had dress-materials and 
stored-up recollections of the new modes of trim- 
ming. He enjoyed jokes on himself, and gave us 
all a laughable description of his discovering in 
the city some fashion that he had especially liked, 
when, turning in the crowded street, he followed 
at a respectful distance the woman wearing it, in 
order to commit to memory the especial style. 
Very naturally, he also took in the gait and fig- 
ure of the stylish wearer, even after he had fixed 
the cut of her gown in his mind, that he might 
eventually transfer it to me. Ah, how we torment- 
ed him when he described his discomfiture, and 
the sudden termination of his walk, when a tu^n 
in the street revealed the face of a negress ! 

I shall have to ask that a thought be given to 
our surroundings, to make clear what an immense 
pleasure a trunk-full of finery was at that time. 
There were no shops nearer than Leavenworth, 
and our faces were set westward, so there seemed 
to be no prospect of getting such an outfit for 
years. There was no one in that far country to 
prevent the screams of delight with which each 
gift was received, and it is impossible to describe 



424 



TENTIA^G ON THE PLAINS. 



how jubilant the donor was over the success of his 
purchases. Brother Tom made a time always, be- 
cause his name was left out, but he noted carefully 
if the General's valise held a new supply of neck- 
ties, gloves, etc., and by night he had usually 
surreptitiously transferred the entire contents to 
his own room. The first notification would be his 
appearance next morning at the breakfast-table, 
wearing his brother's new things, his face perfectly 
solemn and innocent, as if nothing peculiar was 
going on. This sort of game never grew old, and 
it seemed to give them much more amusement 
than if the purchases were formally presented. 
My husband confided to me that, knowing Tom 
would take all he could lay his hands on, he had 
bought twice as many as he needed. The truth 
is, it was only for the boyish fun they got out of 
it, for he always shared everything he had with 
his brother. 

At some point in the journey East, the General 
had fallen into conversation with an officer who, 
in his exuberance of spirits at his appointment to 
the Seventh, had volunteered every detail about 
himself. He was coming from his examination at 
Washington, and was full of excitement over the 
new regiment. He had not the slightest idea who 
my husband was, only that he was also an officer, 
but in the course of conversation brought his name 



A CONFIDENTIAL TRAVELER. 



425 



Up, giving all the accounts he had heard of him 
from both enemies and friends, and his own im- 
pressions of how he should like him. The Gene- 
ral's love of mischief, and curiosity to hear himself 
so freely discussed, led the unsuspecting man to 
ramble on and on, incited by an occasional query 
or reflection, regarding the character of the Lieu- 
tenant-colonel of the Seventh. The first knowl- 
edge the Lieutenant had with whom he had been 
talking, was disclosed to him when he came to pay 
the customary call, on the return of the command- 
ing officer at Fort Riley. His face was a study ; 
perplexity and embarrassment reddened his com- 
plexion almost to a purple, and he moved about 
uneasily in his chair, abashed to thmk he had 
allowed himself . to speak so freely of a man to 
that person's very face. My husband left him but 
a moment in this awkward predicament, and then 
laughed out a long roll of merriment, grasping the 
man's hand, and assured him that he must re- 
member his very freely expressed views were the 
opinions of others, and not his own. It was a 
great relief to the Lieutenant, when he reached 
his quarters, to find that he had escaped some dire 
fate, either long imprisonment or slow torture ; 
for at that time the volunteer officers had a deeply 
fixed terror of the stern, unflinching severity of 
regular officers. Again he became confidential, 



426 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and told the bachelor mess. This was too good a 
chance to lose ; they felt that some more fun could 
still be extracted, and immediately planned a sham 
trial. The good-natured man said his stupidity 
merited it, and asked for counsel. The case was 
spun out as long as it could be made to last. We 
women were admitted as audience, and all the 
grave dignity of his mock affair was a novelty. 

The court used our parlor as a Hall of Justice. 
The counsel for the prisoner was as earnest in his 
defense as if great punishment was to be averted 
by his eloquence. In the daytime he prepared 
arguments, while at the same time the prose- 
cuting attorney wrinkled his brows over the most 
convincmg assaults on the poor man, who, he 
vehemently asserted, ought not to go at large, 
laden with such unpardonable crime. The judge 
addressed the jury, and that solemn body of men 
disappeared into our room, perching on the 
trunks, the bed, the few chairs, to seriously dis- 
cuss the ominous " guilty " or " not guilty." The 
manner of the grave and dignified judge, as he 
finally addressed the prisoner, admonishing him 
as to his future, sorrowfully announcing the de- 
cision of the jury as guilty, and condemning him 
to the penalty of paying a basket of champagne, 
was worthy of the chief executor of an Eastern 
court. 



FORMER HISTORIES. 427 

We almost regretted that some one else would 
not, by some harmless misdemeanor, put himself 
within the reach of such a court. This affair gave 
us the first idea of the clever men among us, for 
all tried to acquit themselves at their best, even 
in the burlesque trial. 

Little by little, it came out what varied lives 
our officers had led heretofore. Some frankly 
spoke of the past, as they became acquainted, 
while others, making an effort to ignore their pre- 
vious history, were found out by the letters that 
came into the post every mail, or by some one 
arriving who had known them in their other life. 
The best bred among them — one descended from 
a Revolutionary colonel, and Governor of a State, 
the other from Alexander Hamilton — were the 
simplest and most unaffected in manner. The 
boaster and would-be aristocrat of our number 
had the misfortune to come face-to-face with a 
townsman, who effectually silenced further refer- 
ence to his gorgeous past. There were men who 
had studied law ; there was one who had been a 
stump speaker in Montana politics, and at last a 
judge in her courts ; another who had been a sea- 
captain, and was distinguished from a second of 
his name in the regiment, by being called always 
thereafter "Salt Smith," while the younger was 
" Fresh Smith," or, by those who were fond of 



428 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

him, " Smithie." There was also a Member of 
Congress, who, having returned to his State after 
the war, had found his place taken and himself 
quite crowded out. When this officer reported 
for duty, I could not believe my eyes. But a few 
months before, in Texas, he had been such a bit- 
ter enemy of my husband's, that, with all the cau- 
tion observed to keep official matters out of my 
life, it could not be hidden from me. The Gen- 
eral, when this officer arrived, called me into our 
room and explained, that, finding him without 
employment in Washington when he went before 
the Board, he could not turn away from his appeal 
for a commission in the service, and had applied, 
without knowing he would be sent to our regi- 
ment. "And now, Libbie, you would not hurt 
my feelings by showing animosity and dislike to 
a man whose hair is already gray !" There was 
no resisting this appeal, and no disguising my 
appreciation of the manner in which he treated 
his enemies, so his words brought me out on the 
gallery with extended hand of welcome, though I 
would sooner have taken hold of a tarantula. I 
never felt a moment's regret, and he never forgot 
the kindness, or that he owed his prosperity, his 
whole future, in fact, to the General, and he won 
my regard by his unswerving fidelity to him from 
that hour to this. 



A SOCIAL POT-POURRI. 429 

There were some lieutenants fresh from West 
Point, and some clerks, too, who had tried to turn 
themselves into merchants, and groaned over the 
wretched hours they had spent, since the close of 
the war, in measuring tape. We had several Irish 
officers — reckless riders, jovial companions. One 
had served in the Papal army, and had foreign 
medals. There was an Italian who had a long, 
strange career to draw upon for our amusement, and 
numbered, among his experiences, imprisonment 
for plotting the hfe of his king. There were two 
officers who had served in the Mexican War, and 
the ears of the subalterns were always opened to 
their stories of those days when, as lieutenants, 
they followed General Scott in his march over the 
old Cortez highway, to his victories and con- 
quests. There was a Prussian among the officers, 
who, though expressing his approval of the justice 
and courtesy that the commanding officer showed 
in his charge of the garrison, used to infuriate the 
others by making invidious distinctions regarding 
foreign service and our own. We had an edu- 
cated Indian as an officer. He belonged to the 
Six Nations, and his father was a Scotchman, but 
there was no Scotch about him, except that he was 
loyal to his trusts and a brave soldier, for he 
looked like any wild man of the Plains ; and one of 
his family said to him, laughingly, " Dress you up 



430 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



in a blanket, and you couldn't be told from a 
Cheyenne or Arrapahoe." There was a French- 
man to add to the nationalities we represented, 
and in our heterogeneous collection one company 
might have its three officers with parentage from 
three of the four corners of the earth. 

The immense amount of rank these new lieuten- 
ants and captains carried was amusing, for those 
who had served in the war still held their titles 
when addressed unofficially, and it was to all ap- 
pearances a regiment made up of generals, colo- 
nels and majors. Occasionally, an officer who had 
served in the regular army many years before the 
war arrogantly lorded it over the young lieuten- 
ants. One especially, who saw nothing good in 
the service as it now was, constantly referred to 
" how it was done in the old First." Having a 
young fellow appointed from civil life as his lieu- 
tenant, who knew nothing of army tactics or eti- 
quette, he found a good subject over whom to 
tyrannize. He gave this lad to understand that, 
whenever the captain made his appearance, he 
must jump up, offer him a chair, and stand atten- 
tion. It was, in fact, a servile life he was mapping 
out for his subordinate. If the lad asserted him- 
self in the slightest way, the captain straightened 
up that Prussian back-bone, tapped his shoulder- 
strap, and grandiloquently observed, " Remem- 



SUPPRESSING A BULLY. 



431 



ber the goolf " [gulf], meaning the great chasm 
that intervened between a shoulder-strap with two 
bars and one with none. Even one knowing lit- 
tle of military life, is aware that the " goolf " be- 
tween a captain and a second lieutenant is not one 
of great magnitude. At last the youth began to see 
that he was being imposed upon, and that other 
captains did not so hold themselves toward their 
inferiors in rank, and he confidentially laid the 
case before a new arrival who had seen service, ask- 
ing him how much of a stand he might make for 
his self-respect, without infringing on military 
rules. The reply was, "When next he tries that 
game on you, tell him to go to h — with his 
gulf." The young fellow, not lacking in spirit, 
returned to his captain well primed for the en- 
counter, and when next the gulf was mentioned, 
he stretched up his six feet of admirable physique, 
and advised the captain to take the journey " with 
his gulf," that had been previously suggested by 
his friend. 

This same young fellow was a hot - headed 
youth, though a splendid soldier, and had a knack 
of getting into little altercations with his brother- 
officers. On one occasion, at our house during a 
garrison hop he and another officer had some dis- 
pute about dancing with a young lady, and retired 
to the coat-room, too courteous to enter into a 



432 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



discussion in the presence of women. It occurred 
to them, as words grew hotter and insufficient for 
the gravity of the occasion, that it would be 
well to interview the commanding officer, fearing 
that they might be placed in arrest. One of them 
descended to the dancing-room, called the Gen- 
eral one side, told the story, and asked permission 
to pound his antagonist, whom he considered the 
aggressor. The General, knowing well how it 
was himself, having, at West Point, been known 
as the cadet who said, " Stand back, boys, and 
let's have a fair fight ! " gave his permission. The 
door of the coat-room closed on the contestants 
for the fair lady's favor, and they had it out alone. 
It must not, from this incident, be inferred that 
our officers belonged to a class whose idea of jus- 
tice was "■ knocking down and dragging out/' but, 
in the newness of our regiment, there seemed to 
be occasions when there was no recourse for im- 
positions or wrongs, except in the natural way. 
The mettle of all was being tested, with a large 
number of men turned suddenly from a free life 
into the narrow limits of a garrison. Where 
everybody's elbow knocked his neighbor's, and no 
one could wholly escape the closest sort of inter- 
course, it was the most natural consequence that 
some jarring and grating went on. 

None of us know how much the good-nature that 



DIFFICULTIES OF ORGANIZATION 433 

we possess is due to the fact that we can take 
refuge in our homes or in flight, sometimes, from 
people who rasp and rub us up the wrong way. 

Our regiment was then a medley of incongruous 
elements, and might well have discouraged a less 
persevering man, in the attempt to mold such 
material into an harmonious whole. From the 
first, the effort was to establish among the better 
men, who had ambition, the proper esprit de corps 
regarding their regiment. The General thought 
over carefully the future of this new organization, 
and worked constantly from the first days to 
make it the best cavalry regiment in the service. 
He assured me, when occasionally I mourned the 
inharmonious feeling that early began to crop out, 
that I must neither look for fidelity nor friendship, 
in its best sense, until the whole of them had been 
in a fight together ; that it was on the battle-field, 
when all faced death together, where the truest 
affection was formed among soldiers. I could not 
help noting, that first year, the change from the 
devotion of my husband's Division of cavalry in 
the Army of the Potomac, to these new officers, 
who, as yet, had no affection for him, nor even for 
their regiment. He often asked me to have pa- 
tience, not to judge too quickly of those who were 
to be our companions, doubtless for years to come, 
and reminded me that, as yet, he had done nothing 



434 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to win their regard or command their respect ; he 
had come among officers and men as an organizer, 
a discipHnarian, and it was perfectly natural they 
should chafe under restraints they had never 
known before. It was a hard place for my hus- 
band to fill, and a most thankless task, to bring 
that motley crowd into military subjection. The 
mischief-makers attempted to report unpleasant 
criticisms, and it was difficult to keep in subjec- 
tion the jealousy that existed between West Point 
graduates, volunteer officers, and civil appointees. 
Of course a furtive watch was kept on the 
graduates of the Military Academy for any 
evidences of assumed superiority on their part, or 
for the slightest dereliction of duty. The volun- 
teer, no matter how splendid a record he had made 
during the war, was excessively sensitive regard- 
ing the fact that he was not a graduated officer. 
My husband persistently fought against any line 
of demarkation between graduates and non- 
graduates. He argued personally, and wrote for 
publication, that the war had proved the volunteer 
officers did just as good service as, and certainly 
were not one whit less brave than, West Pointers. 
I remember how every little slip of a West Pointer 
was caught at by the others. One morning a 
group of men were gathered about the flag-staff at 
guard-mount, making the official report as officer 



A SLIP OF THE TONGUE. 



435 



of the day and officer of the guard, when a West 
Pointer joined them in the irreproachable uniform 
of a Heutenant, walking as few save graduates 
ever do walk. He gravely saluted, but, instead 
of reporting for duty, spoke out of the fullness of 
his heart, " Gentlemen, it's a boy." Of course, not a 
man among them was insensible to the honor of 
being the father of a first son and heir, and all 
suspended military observances belonging to the 
morning duties, and genuinely rejoiced with the 
new-made parent ; but still they gloated over the 
fact that there had been, even in such a moment 
of excitement, this lapse of military dignity in one 
who was considered a cut-and-dried soldier. 

An embarrassing position for General Custer 
was, that he had under him officers much older 
than himself. He was then but twenty-seven 
years of age, and the people who studied to make 
trouble (and how rarely are they absent from 
any community ?) used this fact as a means of 
stirring up dissension. How thankful I was that 
nothing could draw him into difficulty from that 
question, for he either refused to listen, or heard 
only to forget. One day he was deeply moved 
by the Major of our regiment, General Alfred 
Gibbs, who had commanded the brigade of regu- 
lar cavalry in the Army of the Potomac during 
the war, and whose soul was so broad and his 



436 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

heart so big that he was above everything petty 
or mean. My husband called me into our room 
and shut the door, in order to tell me, quietly, that 
some gossip had endeavored to spread a report 
that General Gibbs was galled by his position, and 
unwilling to submit to the authority of so young 
a man. On hearing this,- he came straightway to 
General Custer — ah, what worlds of trouble we 
would be saved if there were courage to inquire 
into slander ! — and in the most earnest, frank 
manner assured him that he had never expressed 
such sentiments, and that their years of service 
together during the war had established an abid- 
ing regard for his soldierly ability, that made it a 
pleasure to be in his regiment. This, from an 
officer who had served with distinction in the 
Mexican War, as well as done gallant service 
in an Indian campaign before the Civil War, 
was a most grateful compliment to my hus- 
band. General Gibbs was a famous disciplinarian, 
and he had also the quaintest manner of fetching 
every one to the etiquettical standard he knew 
to be necessary. He was witty, and greatly given 
to joking, and yet perfectly unswerving in the 
performance of the most insignificant duty. We 
have exhausted ourselves with laughter as he de- 
scribed, by contortions of feature and really 
extraordinary facial gymnastics, his efforts to 



A MODEL DISCIPLINARIAN. 407 

dislodg-e a venturesome and unmilitary fly, that 
had perched on his nose when he was conducting 
a dress-parade. To hft his hand and brush off 
the intruder, with a long- Hne of soldiers facing 
him, was an example he would scarcely like them 
to follow ; and yet the tantalizing tickling of 
those fly-legs, slowly traveling over his moist and 
heated face, was almost too exasperating to en- 
dure. If General Gibbs felt the necessity of 
reminding any one of carelessness in dress, it was 
managed in so clever a manner that it gave no 
lasting offense. My husband, absorbed in the 
drilling, discipline and organization of the regi- 
ment, sometimes overlooked the necessity for 
social obligations, and immediately came under 
the General's witty criticisms. If a strange officer 
visited our post, and any one neglected to call, as is 
considered obligatory, it was remarked upon by 
our etiquettical mentor. If the officers were care- 
less in dress, or wore semi - military clothes, 
something quite natural in young fellows who 
wanted to load on everything that glittered, 
our General Etiquette made mention of it. One 
wore an English forage-cap with a lot of gilt 
braid on top, instead of the plain visored cap of 
the regulations. The way he came to know that 
this innovation must be suppressed, was by a re- 
quest from General Gibbs to purchase it for his 



438 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

band-master. He himself was so strictly military 
that he could well afford to hold the others up to 
the mark. His coats were marvelous fits, and 
he tightly buckled in his increasing rotundity 
with a superb belt and clasp that had belonged 
to his grandfather, a Wolcott in the Revolution- 
ary War. 

Most women know with what obstinate deter- 
mination and adoring fondness a man clings to 
some shabby article of wearing apparel. There 
was in our family an ancient dressing-gown, not 
the jaunty smoking-jacket that I fortunately 
learned afterward to make, but a long, clumsy, 
quilted monstrosity that I had laboriously cobbled 
out with very ignorant fingers. My husband 
simply worshipped it. The garment appeared 
on one of his birthdays, and I was praised be- 
yond my deserts for having put in shape such a 
success, and he could hardly slide out of his 
uniform, when he came from the office, quickly 
enough to enable him to jump into this soft, 
loose, abomination. If he had vanity, which it 
is claimed is lodged somewhere in every human 
breast, it was spasmodic, for he not only knew 
that he looked like a fright, but his family told 
him this fact, with repeated variations of derision. 
When at last it became not even respectable, it 
was so ragged I attempted to hide it, but this 



RIDICULE WORKS A REFORM. 43 g 

did no earthly good. The beloved possession was 
ferreted out, and he gaily danced up and down in 
triumph before his discomfited wife, all the rags 
and tags flaunting out as he moved. In vain 
General Gibbs asked me why I allowed such a 
disgraceful " old man's garment " about. The 
truth was, there was not half the discipline in our 
family that there might have been had we been 
citizens. A woman cannot be expected to keep 
a man up to the mark in every little detail, and 
surely she may be excused if she do a little 
spoiling when, after months of separation she is 
returned to the one for whom her heart has been 
wrung with anxiety. No sooner are you to- 
gether than there comes the ever present terror 
of being divided again. 

General Gibbs won at last in suppressing the 
old dressing-gown, for he begged General Custer 
to picture to himself the appearance of his entire 
regiment clad in long-tailed, ragged gowns 
modeled after that of their commanding officer ! 
In dozens of ways General Gibbs kept us up to the 
mark socially. He never drew distinctions be- 
tween the old army and the new, as some were 
wont to do, and his influence in shaping our regi- 
ment in social as well as military affairs was felt 
in a marked manner, and we came to regard him 
as an authority and to value his suggestions. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RISTORI, AND THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE A PRO- 
POSAL ON THE HOUSE-TOP GIDEON's BAND A 

LETTER FROM CHARLES G. LELAND BREITMANN 

IN KANSAS CLEVER ROGUES ESCAPE FROM THE 

GUARD-HOUSE MARKETING IN JUNCTION CITY 

CROSSING A SWOLLEN RIVER THE STORY OF 

JOHNNIE AN EXPEDITION LEAVES FORT RILEY 

FOR A CAMPAIGN. 

O OON after my husband returned from Wash- 
ington, he found that Ristori was advertised 
in St. Louis, and as he had been deHghted with 
her acting when in the East, he insisted upon my 
going there, though it was a journey of several 
hundred miles. The young officers urged, and 
the pretty Diana looked volumes of entreaty at 
me, so at last I consented to go, as we need be 
absent but a few days. At that time the dreaded 
campaign looked far off, and I was trying to 
cheat myself into the belief that there might pos- 
sibly be none at all. 

Ristori, heard under any circumstances, was an 
event in a life ; but to listen to her as we did, the 
only treat of the kind in our winter, and feeling 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 441 

almost certain it was the last of such privileges 
for years to come, was an occasion never to be 
forgotten. 

I do not know whether Diana collected her 
senses enough to know, at any one time, that she 
was listening to the most gifted woman in 
histrionic art. A civilian lover had appeared on 
the scene, and between our young officers, already 
far advanced in the dazed and enraptured state, 
and the new addition to her retinue, she was never 
many moments without "airy nothings" poured 
into her ear. The citizen and the officers 
glowered on each other, and sought in vain to 
monopolize the inamorata. Even when the 
thoughtless girl put a military cap on the head of 
the civilian, and told him that an improvement in 
his appearance was instantly visible, he still re- 
mained and held his ground valiantly. Finally 
the most desperate of them called me to one side, 
and implored my championship. He com- 
plained bitterly that he never began to say what 
trembled on his tongue, but one of those interfer- 
ing fellows appeared and interrupted him, and 
now, as the time was passing, there remained but 
one chance before we went home, where he would 
again be among a dozen other men who were sure 
to get in his way. He said he had thought over 
every plan, and if I would engage the interfering 



442 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ones for a half hour, he would take Diana 
to the hotel cupola, ostensibly to see the view 
and if, after they were up there, she saw anything 
but him, it would not be his fault, for say his say 
he must. No one could resist such a piteous ap- 
peal, so I engaged the supernumerary men in 
conversation as best I could, talking against time 
and eyeing the door as anxiously as they did. I 
knew, when the pair returned, that the pent-up 
avowal had found utterance ; but the coquetting 
lass had left him in such a state of uncertainty 
that even "fleeing to the house-top" had not se- 
cured his future. So it went on, suspense 
and agitation increasing in the perturbed hearts, 
but the dallying of this coy and skillful strate- 
gist, wise beyond her years in some ways, 
seemed to prove that she believed what is often 
said, that a man is more blissful in uncertainty 
than in possession. 

Our table was rarely without guests at that 
time. A great many of the strangers came with 
letters of introduction to us, and the General 
superintended the arrangements for buffalo-hunts, 
if they were to be in the vicinity of our post. 
Among the distinguished visitors was Prince 
OurosofF, nephew of the Emperor of Russia. He 
was but a lad, and only knew that if he came 
west far enough, he was very likely to find what 



STRANGERS WITHIN THE GATES. 443 

the atlas put down as the " Great American 
Desert." None of us could tell him much more 
of the Sahara of America than of his own step- 
pes in Russia. As the years have advanced, the 
maps have shifted that imaginary desert from 
side to side. The pioneer does such wonders in 
cultivating what was then supposed to be a barren 
waste; that we bid fair in time not to have any 
Sahara at all. I hardly wonder now at the sur- 
prise this royal scion expressed, at finding- himself 
among men and women who kept up the ameni- 
ties of refined life, even when living in that sub- 
terranean home which our Government provided 
for its defenders — the dug-out. It seems strange 
enough, that those of us who lived the rough life 
of Kansas's early days, did not entirely adopt the 
careless, unconventional existence of the pioneer ; 
but military discipline is something not easily set 
aside. 

Almost our first excursionists were such a suc- 
cess that we wished they might be duplicated in 
those who flocked out there in after years. Several 
of the party were old travelers, willing to under- 
go hardships and encounter dangers, to see the 
country before it was overrun with tourists. They 
were our guests, and the manner in which they 
beguiled our time made their departure a real 
regret. They called themselves " Gideon's Band." 



444 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



The youngest of the party, a McCook from the 
fighting Ohio family, was " Old Gid," while the 
oldest of all answered when they called " Young 
Gid." As they were witty, clever, conversant by 
actual experience with most things that we only 
read of in the papers, we found them a godsend. 
When such people thanked us for what simple 
hospitality we could offer, it almost came as a 
surprise, for we felt ourselves their debtors. After 
having written to this point in my narrative of 
our gay visit from Gideon's Band, a letter in re- 
sponse to one that I had sent to Mr. Charles 
G. Leland arrived from London. I asked him 
about his poem, and after twenty years, in 
which we never saw him, he recalls with enthusi- 
asm his short stay with us. I have only eliminated 
some descriptions that he gives, in the extract of 
the private letter sent then from Fort Riley — 
descriptions of the wife of the commanding officer 
and the pretty Diana. Women being in the 
minority, it was natural that we were never un- 
dervalued. Grateful as I am that he should 
so highly appreciate officers' wives, and much 
as I prize what he says regarding " the influ- 
ences that made a man, and kept him what he 
was," I must reserve for Mr. Leland's correspond- 
ent of twenty years back, and for myself, his 
opinion of frontier women. 



A MEMORY REVIVED. 



445 



"Langham Hotel. Portland Place, 
"London, W., June 14, 1887. 
"Dear Mrs. Custer : — It is a thousand times 
more likely that you should forget me than that 
I should ever forget you, though it were at an in- 
terval of twice twenty years ; the more so since I 
have read your admirable book, which has re- 
vived in me the memory of one of the strangest 
incidents and some of the most agreeable impres- 
sions of a somewhat varied and eventful life. I 
was with a party of gentlemen who had gone out 
to what was then the most advanced surveyor's 
camp for the Pacific Railway, in western Kansas. 
On returning, we found ourselves one evening 
about a mile from Fort Riley, where we were to 
be the guests of yourself and your husband. We 
had been all day in a so-called ambulance or 
wagon. The one that I shared with my friend, 
J. R. G. Plassard, of the New York Tribime, was 
driven by a very intelligent and amusing frontiers- 
man, deeply experienced in Indian and Mexican 
life, named Brigham. Brigham thought, by mis- 
take, that we had all gone to Fort Riley by some 
other conveyance, and he was thirty or forty yards 
in advance, driving on rapidly. We, encumbered 
with blankets, packs and arms, had no mind to 
walk when we could 'waggon.' One man 
whistled, and all roared aloud. Then one dis- 
charged his rifle. But the wind was blowing 
away from Brigham towards us, and he heard 
nothing. The devil put an idea in my head, 
for which I have had many a regret since then. 
In/andum regina jubes renovare doloreni. ' Thou, 
my queen, dost command me to revive a 
wretched sorrow.' For it occurred that I could 
send a rifle-ball so near to Brigham's head that he 
could hear the whistle, and that this would very 



446 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



naturally cause him stop. If I could only know 
all, I would sooner have aimed between my own 
eyes. 

" ' Give me a gun,' I said to Colonel Lam- 
bourn. 

" ' You won't shoot at him !' said the Colonel. 

"'If you'll insure the mules,' I replied, 'I will 
insure the driver.' 

" I took aim and fired. The ambulance was cov- 
ered, and I did not know that Mr. Hassard, the 
best fellow in the world — neinini secundus — was 
sitting inside and talking to Brigham. The 
bullet passed between their faces, which were 
a foot apart — less rather than more. 

" • What is that ? ' cried Hassard. 

" ' lnju7isr replied Brigham, who knew by many 
an experience how wagons were Apached, Co- 
manchied, or otherwise aboriginated. 

" ' Lay down flat !' 

" He drove desperately till he thought he was 
out of shot, and then put out his head to give the 
Indians a taunting war-whoop. I shall never for- 
get the appearance of that sun-burned face, with 
gold ear-rings and a vast sombrero ! What was 
his amazement at seeing only friends ! I did not 
know what Brigham's state of mind might be tow- 
ard me, but I remembered that he gloried in his 
familiarity with Spanish, so I said to him in the 
Castile-soap dialect, ' I fired that shot ; is it to be 
hand or knife between us ? ' It is to his credit 
that he at once shook my hand, and said ' La 
niano!' He drove on in grim silence, and then 
said, ' I've driven for twelve years on this frontier, 
but I never heard, before, of anybody trying to 
stop one by shooting the driver.' 

" Another silence, broken by the following re- 
mark : ' I wish to God there was a gulch any 



A TERROR CALMED. 447 

where between here and the fort ! I'd upset this 
party into it d n quick.' 

" But I had a great fear. It was of General Cus- 
ter and what he would have to say to me, for 
recklessly imperiling the life of one of his drivers, 
to say nothing of what might have happened to a 
valuable team of mules and the wagon. It was 
with perturbed feelings — Sind, ay de ?ni / with an 
evil conscience — that I approached him. He had 
been informed of the incident, but was neither 
angry nor vindictive. All he did was to utter a 
hearty laugh and say, ' 1 never heard before of 
such an original way of ringing a bell to call a 
man.' 

" In a letter written about this time to a friend, I 
find the following : 

" * We had not for many days seen a lady. In- 
deed, the only woman I had met for more than a 
week was a poor, sad soul, who, with her two child- 
daughters, had just been brought in by Lieuten- 
ant Hesselberger from a six-months' captivity of 
outrage and torture among the Apaches. You 
may imagine how I was impressed with Mrs. 
General Custer and her friend, Miss . 

" 'General Custer is an ideal — the ideal of frank 
chivalry, unaffected, genial humor, and that ear- 
nestness allied to originality which is so character- 
istic of the best kind of Western army man. I 
have not, in all my life, met with so many inter- 
esting types of character, as during this, my first 
journey to Kansas, but first among all, I place 
this trio. 

" ' In the evening a great musical treat awaited 
me. I had once passed six months in Bavaria, 
where I had learned to love the zither. This in- 
strument was about as well known twenty years 
ago in America, as a harp of a thousand strings. 



448 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

But there was at the fort a Bavarian soldier, who 
played charmingly on it, and he was brought in. 
I remember askmg him for many of his best-loved 
airs. The General and his wife impressed me as 
two of the best entertainers of guests whom I 
ever met. The perfection of this rare talent is, to 
enjoy yourself while making others at their ease 
and merry, and the proof lies in this, that seldom, 
indeed, have I ever spent so pleasant an evening 
as that in the fort.' 

" My personal experience of General Custer does 
not abound in anecdotes, but is extremely rich 
in my impressions of him, as a type and a charac- 
ter, both as man and gentleman. There is many 
a man whom I have met a thousand times, whom 
I hardly recollect at all, while I could never for- 
get him. He w^as not only an admirable but an 
impressive man. One would credit anything to 
his credit, because he was so frank and earnest. 
One meets with a somewhat similar character 
sometimes among the Hungarians, but just such a 
man is as rare as the want of them in the world is 
great. 

" With sincere regards, yours truly, 

" Charles G. Leland." 

As Mr. Leland's poem, " Breitmann in Kansas," 
was inspired partly by the buffalo-hunt and visit 
at our quarters, I quote a few stanzas :* 

" Vonce oopen a dimes, der Herr Breitmann vent oud West. 
Von efenings he was drafel mit some ladies und shendlemans, 
und he shtaid incognitus. Und dey singed songs dill py and py 
one of de ladies say : * Ish any podies here ash know de crate 



• * From " Hans Breitmann's Ballads," by permission of Messrs. 
T. B. Peterson & Brothers, publishers. 



A DIALECT POEM. 



449 



pallad of " Hans Breitmann's Barty ?" ' Den Hans said, * I am 
dat rooster !' Den der Hans took a drink und a let pencil und a 
biece of baper, und goes indo himself a little dimes, and den 
coomes out again mit dis boem : 

*' Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas ; 

He drafel fast und far. 
He rided shoost drei dousand miles 

All in one railroot car. 
He knowed foost rate how far he goed — 

He gounted all de vile. 
Dar vash shoost one bottle of champagne. 

Dat bopped at efery mile. 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas ; 

He went in on de loud. 
At Ellsvort in de prairie land, 

He found a pully croud. 
He looked for bleeding Kansas, 

But dat's * blayed out,' dey say ; 
De whiskey keg's de only dings 

Dat's bleedin' der to-day. 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas ; 

Py shings ! I dell you vot, 
Von day he met a crisly bear 

Dat rooshed him down, bei Gott ! 
Boot der Breitmann took und bind der bear, 

Und bleased him fery much — 
For efry vordt der crisly growled 

Vas goot Bavarian Dutch ! 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas ! 

By donder, dat is so ! 
He ridit out upon de plains 

To shase de boofalo. 
He fired his rifle at the bools, 

Und gallop troo de shmoke 
Und shoomp de canyons shoost as if 

Der tyfel vas a choke !" 



450 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Not only were a large number of officers 
brought together that winter from varied walks 
in life and of different nationalities, but the men 
that enlisted ranged from the highest type of 
soldier to the lowest scum of humanity recruited 
in the crowded cities. It often happened that 
enlisted men had served an honorable record as 
officers in the volunteer service. Some had en- 
tered the regular army because their life was 
broken up by the war and they knew not how to 
begin a new career; others had hopes of promo- 
tion, on the strength of their war record, or from 
the promises of influential friends. My heart is 
moved anew as I recall one man, who sank his 
name and individuality, his very self, it seemed, 
by enlistment, and as effectually disappeared as 
if he had flung himself into the river that rushed 
by our post. One night there knocked at the 
door of one of our officer's quarters a man who, 
though in citizen's dress, was at once recognized 
as an old comrade in the war. He had been a 
brigadier-general of volunteers. After he had been 
made welcome, he gave some slight account of 
himself, and then said he had about made up his 
mind to enlist. Our Seventh Cavalry officer im- 
plored him not to think of such a thing, pictured the 
existence of a man of education and refinement 
in such surroundings, and offered him financial 



GOOD-BY TO INDIVIDUALITY. 



451 



help, should that be needed." 
He finally found the subject 
was adroitly withdrawn, and 
the conversation went back to 
old times. They talked on in 
this friendly manner until mid- 
night, and then parted. The 
next day a soldier in fresh, 
bright blue uniform, passed the 
officer, formally saluting as he 
went by, and to his consterna- 
tion he discovered in this en- 
listed man his friend of the 
night before. They never met 
again ; the good-by of the mid- / ^^^ 
night hour was m reality the y''^'"- 
farewell that one of them had ifk 
intended it to be. 




GUN-STAND IN GENERAL CUSTER'S LIBRARY. 



452 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



This is but one of many instances where supe- 
rior men, for one reason or another, get into the 
ranks of our army. If they are fortunate enough 
to fall into the hands of considerate officers, their 
lot is endurable ; but to be assigned to one who 
is unjust and overbearing is a miserable existence. 
One of our finest men was so constantly looking, 
in his soldiers, for the same qualities that he pos- 
sessed, and insisted so upon the superiority of 
his men, that the officers were wont to exclaim in 
good-natured irony, " Oh, yes, we all know that 
Hamilton's company is made up of dukes and 
earls in disguise." 

There were some clever rogues among the en- 
listed men, and the officers were as yet scarcely 
able to cope with the cunning of those who doubt- 
less had intimate acquaintance with courts of 
justice and prisons in the Eastern States. The re- 
cruiting officer in the cities is not compelled, as in 
other occupations, to ask a character from a 
former employer. The Government demands able- 
bodied men, and the recruiting sergeant casts his 
critical eye over the anatomical outlines, as he 
would over the good points of a horse destined for 
the same service. The awful hereafter is, when the 
officer that receives this physical perfection on the 
frontier aims to discover whether it contains a soul. 

Our guard-house at Fort Riley was outside the 



ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 



453 

garrison a short distance, and held a goodly 
number of violators of the regulations. For sev- 
eral nights, at one time, strange sounds for such a 
place issued from the walls. Religion in the 
noisiest form seemed to have taken up its perma- 
nent abode there, and for three hours at a time 
singing, shouting and loud praying went on. 
There was every appearance of a revival among 
those trespassers. The officer of the day, in mak- 
ing his rounds, had no comment to pass upon this 
remarkable transition from card- playing and 
wrangling ; he was doubtless relieved to hear the 
voice of the exhorters as he visited the guard, and 
indulged in the belief that the prisoners were out 
of mischief. On the contrary, this vehement 
attack of religion covered up the worst sort of 
roguery. Night after night they had been digging 
tunnels under the stone foundation-walls, remov- 
ing boards and cutting beams in the floor, and to 
deaden the sound of the pounding and digging 
some of their number were told off to sing, pray 
and shout. One morning the guard opened the 
door of the rooms in which the prisoners had been 
confined, and they were empty ! Even two that 
wore ball and chains for serious offenses had in 
some manner managed to knock them off, as all 
had swum the Smoky Hill River, and they were 
never again heard from. 



454 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

As with the history of all prisons, so it was of 
our Httle one. The greatest rogues were not in- 
carcerated ; they were too cunning to be caught. 
It often happened that some excellent soldiers be- 
came innocently involved in a fracas and were 
marched off to the guard-house, while the arch 
villain slipped into his place in the ranks and 
answered to his name at roll-call, apparently the 
most exemplary of soldiers. Several instances of 
what I thought to be unjust imprisonment came 
directly under my notice, and I may have been 
greatly influenced by Eliza's pleas in their be- 
half. We made the effort, and succeeded in ex- 
tricating one man from his imprisonment. 
Whether he was in reality wronged, or had only 
worked upon our sympathies, will never be known, 
but he certainly made an excellent soldier from 
that time until the end of his enlistment. Eliza, 
in her own quaint way, is saying to me now, " Do 

you mind, Miss Libbie, how me and you got J 

his parole ? He used to come to our house with 
the rest of the prisoners, to police the yard and cut 
the wood, and they used to hang round my door ; 
the guard could hardly get 'em away. Well, I 
reckon he didn't try very hard, for he didn't like 
hard-tack no better than they did. One of them 
would speak up the minute they saw me, and say, 
'Eliza, you hain't got no hot biscuit, have you?' 



A PLEA FOR PRISOXERS. 



455 



Hot biscuits for prisoners ! do you hear that, Miss 
Libbie ? The Ginnel would be standin' at the 
back window, just to catch a chance to laugh at 
me if I gave the prisoners anythin' to eat. He'd 
stand at that window, movin' from one foot to 
the other, craning of his neck, and when I did 
give any cold scraps, he just bided his time, and 
when he saw me he would say, ' Well, been 
issuin' your rations again, Eliza ? How many 
apple-dumplin's and biscuit did they get this 
time ? ' Apple-dumplin's, Miss Libbie ! He jest 
said that 'cause he liked 'em better than any- 
thin' else, and s'posed I'd been givin' away some 
of his. But as soon as he had teased me about it, 
that was the end; he would go along about his way 
and pick up his book, when he had done his laugh. 
But, Miss Libbie, he used to kinder mistrust, if me 
and you was talkin' one side. He would say, 
' What you two conspirin' up now ? Tryin' to 
get some one out of jail, I s'pose.' I remember 

how we worked for J . He came to me and 

told me I must ' try to get Mrs. Custer to work 
for him ; two words from her would do him more 
good than all the rest,' and he would come along 
sideways by your window, carrying his ball over 
his arm with the chain a danglin', and look so 
pitiful like, so you would see him and beg him off." 
This affair ended entirely to Eliza's satisfaction. 



45^ 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



I saw the captain of his company ; for though it 
was against my husband's wish that I should have 
anything to do with official matters, he did not 
object to this intervention; he only laughed at my 
credulity. The captain politely heard my state- 
ment of what Eliza had told me were J 's 

wrongs, and gave him parole. His sentence was 
rescinded eventually, as he kept his promises and 
was a most faithful soldier. The next morning 

after J was returned to duty and began life 

anew, one of the young officers sauntered into our 
quarters and, waving his hand with a little 
flourish, said, " I want to congratulate you on 
having obtained the pardon of the greatest scamp 
in the regiment ; he wouldn't steal a red-hot stove, 
but would wait a mighty long time for it to cool." 
Later in my story is my husband's mention, in his 
letters, of the very man as bearing so good a 
record that he sent for him and had him detailed 
at headquarters, for nothing in the world, he con- 
fessed, but because I had once interceded for him. 
Eliza kept my sympathies constantly aroused, 
with her piteous tales of the wrongs of the pris- 
oners. They daily had her ear, and she appointed 
herself judge, jury and attorney for the defense. 
On the coldest days, when we could not ride and 
the wind blew so furiously that we were not able 
to walk, I saw from our windows how poorly clad 



COLD FACTS AGAINST US. 



457 



they were, for they came daily, under the care of 
the guard, to cut the wood and fill the water-bar- 
rels. The General quietly endured the expressions 
of sympathy, and sometimes my indignant pro- 
tests against unjust treatment. He knew the wrath- 
ful spirit of the kitchen had obeyed the natural 
law that heat must rise, and treated our combined 
rages over the prisoners' wrongs with aggravating 
calmness. Knowing more about the guard-house 
occupants than I did, he was fortified by facts 
that saved him from expending his sympathies in 
the wrong direction. He only smiled at the plau- 
sible stories by which Eliza was first taken in at 
the kitchen door. They lost nothing by trans- 
mission, as she had quite an imagination and de- 
cidedly a dramatic delivery ; and finally, when I 
told the tale, trying to perform the monstrously 
hard feat of telling it as it was told to me, youth, 
inexperience and an emotional temperament made 
a narrative so absolutely distressing that the Gen- 
eral was likely to come over bodily to our side, 
had he not recalled the details of the court-martial 
that had tried the soldier. We were routed, yet 
not completely, for we fell back upon his clothes,, 
and pleaded that, though he was thought to be 
wicked, he might be permitted to be warm. But 
the colored and white troops had to leave the field, 
"horse, foot and dragoons," when, on investiga- 



458 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tion, we found that the man for whom we pleaded 
had gambled away his very shirt. 

The unmoved manner in which my husband 
listened to different accounts of supposed cruelty — 
dropping his beloved newspaper with the injured 
air that men assume, while 1 sat by him, half cry- 
ing, gesticulating, thoroughly roused in my de- 
fense of the injured one — was exasperating, to say 
the least ; and then, at last, to have this bubble 
of assumed championship burst, and see him 
launch into such uproarious conduct when he 
found that the man for whom I pleaded was the 
arch rogue of all — oh, women alone can picture to 
themselves what the situation must have been to 
poor me ! 

After one of these seasons of good-natured 
scoffing over the frequency with which I was taken 
in, I mentally resolved that, though the proof I 
heard of the soldier's depravity was too strong 
for me to ignore, there was no contesting the fact 
that the criminal was cold, and if I had failed in 
freeing him I might at least provide against his 
freezing. He was at that time buttoning a rag- 
ged blouse up to his chin, not only for warmth, 
but because, in his evening game of poker, his 
comrade had won the undergarment, quite super- 
fluous, he thought, while warmed by the guard- 
house fire. I proceeded to shut myself in our 



CAPTURE FROM A GUNBOAT. 459 

room, and go through the General's trunk for 
something warm. The selection that I made was 
unfortunate. There were some navy shirts of blue 
flannel that had been procured with considerable 
trouble from a gunboat in the James River the last 
year of the war, the like of which, in quality and 
durability, could not be found in any shop. The 
material was so good that they neither shrunk nor 
pulled out of shape. The broad collar had a star 
embroidered in solid silk in either corner. The 
General had bought these for their durability, but 
they proved to be a picturesque addition to his 
gay dress ; and the red necktie adopted by his 
entire Third Division of Cavalry gave a dash of 
vivid color, while the yellow hair contrasted with 
the dark blue of the flannel. The gunboats were 
overwhelmed with applications to buy, as his 
Division wished to adopt this feature of his dress 
also, and military tailors had many orders to re- 
produce what the General had " lighted upon," as 
the officers expressed it, by accident. Really, 
there was no color so good for campaigning, as it 
was hard to harmonize any gray tint with the 
different blues of the uniform. Men have a way 
of saying that we women never seize their things, 
for barter or other malevolent purposes, without 
selecting what they especially prize. But the 
General really had reason to dote upon these shirts. 



460 TENTING ON THE PLAINS, 

The rest of the story scarcely needs telHng. 
Many injured husbands whose wardrobes have 
been confiscated for eleemosynary purposes, will 
join in a general wail. The men that wear 
one overcoat in early spring, and carry another 
over their arm to their offices, uncertain, if they 
did not observe this precaution, that the coming 
winter would not find these garments mysteriously 
metamorphosed into lace on a gown, or mantle 
ornaments, may fill in all that my story fails to 
tell. In the General's case, it was perhaps more 
than ordinarily exasperating. It was not that a 
creature who bargains for " gentlemen's cast-offs" 
had possession of something that a tailor could 
not readily replace, but we were then too far out 
on the Plains to buy even ordinary blue flannel. 

As I remember myself half buried in the trunk 
of the commanding officer, and suddenly lifted into 
the air with a shirt in one hand, my own escape 
from the guard-house seems miraculous. As it 
was, I was let off very lightly, ignoring some re- 
marks about it's being " a pretty high-handed 
state of affairs, that compels a man to lock his 
trunk in his own family ; and that, between Tom's 
pilfering and his wife's, the commanding officer 
would soon be obliged to receive official reports 
in bed." 

There was very little hunting about Fort Riley 



TEMPORAR Y FAMINE. /^6 I 

in the winter. The General had shot a great 
many prairie chickens in the autumn, and hung 
them in the wood-house, and while they lasted 
we were not entirely dependent on Government 
beef. As the season advanced, we had only ox- 
tail soup and beef. Although the officers were 
allowed to buy the best cuts, the cattle that sup- 
plied the post with meat were far from being in 
good condition. One day our table was crowded 
with officers, some of whom had just reported for 
duty. The usual great tureen of soup was dis- 
posed of, and the servant brought in an immense 
platter, on which generally reposed a large roast. 
But when the dish was placed before the General, 
to my dismay there appeared in the centre of its 
wide circumference a steak hardly larger than a 
man's hand. It was a painful situation, and I 
blushed, gazed uneasily at the new-comers, but 
hesitated about apologies, as they were my hus- 
band's detestation. He relieved us from the 
awful silence that fell upon all, by a peal of 
laughter that shook the table and disturbed the 
poor little steak in its lonesome bed. Eliza thrust 
her head in at the door, and explained that the 
cattle had stampeded, and the commissary could 
not get them back in time to kill, as they did 
daily at the post. The General was perfectly 
unmoved, calling those peculiar staccato "all 



462 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

right !" " all right !" to poor Eliza, setting affairs 
at ease again, and asking the guests to do the best 
they could with the vegetables, bread and butter, 
coffee and dessert. 

The next day, beef returned to our table, but, 
alas ! the potatoes gave out, and I began to be 
disturbed about my housewifely duties. My 
husband begged me not to give it a thought, say- 
ing that Eliza would pull us through the tempo- 
rary famine satisfactorily, and adding, that what 
was good enough for us, was good enough for our 
guests. But an attack of domestic responsibility 
was upon me, and I insisted upon going to the 
little town near us. Under any circumstances the 
General opposed my entering its precincts, as it 
was largely inhabited by outlaws and despera- 
does, and to go for so small a consideration as 
marketing was entirely against his wishes. I 
paid dearly for my persistence ; for, when, after 
buying what I could at the stores, I set out to 
return, the chain bridge on which I had crossed 
the river in the morning, had been swept away, 
and the roaring torrent, that had risen above the 
high banks, was plunging along its furious way, 
bearing earth and trees in its turbid flood. I 
spent several dreary hours on the bank, growing 
more uneasy and remorseful all the time. The 
potatoes and eggs that so short a time since I had 



A PERSISTENT V/OMAN. 463 

triumphantly secured, seemed more and more 
hateful to me, as I looked at them lying in the 
basket in the bottom of the ambulance. I made 
innumerable resolves that, so long as my husband 
did not wish me to concern myself about provid- 
ing for our table, I never would attempt it again ; 
but all these resolutions could not bring back the 
bridge, and I had to take the advice of one of 
our officers, who was also waiting to cross, and 
go back to the house of one of the merchants 
who sold supplies to the post. His wife was very 
hospitable, as frontier men and women invariably 
are. and next morning I was down on the bank of 
the river early, more impatient than ever to cross. 
What made the detention more exasperating was, 
that the buildings of the garrison on the plateau 
were plainly visible from where we waited. Then 
ensued the most foolhardy conduct on my part, 
and so terrified the General when I told him 
afterward, that I came near never being trusted 
alone again. The most vexing part of it all was, 
that I involved the officer, who was in town by 
accident, in imminent danger, for when he heard 
what I was determined to do, he had no alternative 
but to second my scheme, as no persuasion was 
of any avail. I induced a sergeant in charge of 
a small boat to take me over. I was frantic to 
get home, as for some time preparations had been 



464 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

going on for a summer campaign, and I had kept 
it out of our day as much as I could. 

The General never anticipated trouble, reason- 
ing that it was bad enough when it came, and we 
both felt that every hour must hold what it could 
of enjoyment, and not be darkened a moment if 
we could help it. The hours of delay on the 
bank were almost insupportable, as each one was 
shortening precious time. I could not help tell- 
ing the sergeant this, and he yielded to my en- 
treaties — for what soldier ever refused our ap- 
peals ? The wind drove through the trees on the 
bank, lashing the limbs to and fro and breaking 
off huge branches, and it required almost super- 
human strength to hold the frail boat to the slip- 
pery landing long enough to lift me in. The sol- 
dier at the prow held in his muscular hands a pole 
with an iron pin at the end, with which he used 
all his energy to push away the floating logs that 
threatened to swamp us. It was almost useless to 
attempt to steer, as the river had a current that 
it was impossible to stem. The only plan was, to 
push out into the stream filled with debris, and 
let the current shoot the boat far down the river, 
aiming for a bend in its shores on the opposite 
side. I closed my eyes to the wild rush of water 
on all sides ; shuddering at the shouts of the sol- 
diers, who tried to make themselves heard above 



TESTING A MAN'S METTLE. 465 

the deafening clamor of the tempest. I could not 
face our danger and retain my self-control, and I 
was tortured by the thought of having brought 
peril to others. I owed my life to the strong and sup- 
ple arms of the sergeant and the stalwart soldier 
who assisted him, for with a spring they caught 
the limbs of an over-hanging tree, just at the im- 
portant moment when our little craft swung near 
the bank at the river bend, and, clutching at 
branches and rocks, we were pulled to the shore 
and safely landed. Why the brave sergeant 
even listened to such a wild proposition, I do not 
know. It was the maddest sort of recklessness to 
attempt such a crossing, and the man had nothing 
to gain. With the strange, impassable gulf that 
separates a soldier from his officers and their 
families, my imploring to be taken over the river, 
and my overwhelming thanks afterward, were 
the only words he would ever hear me speak. 
With the officer who shared the peril, it was differ- 
ent. When we sat round the fireside again, he 
was the hero of the hour. The gratitude of the 
officers, the thanks of the women putting them- 
selves in my place and giving him praise for en- 
countering danger for another, were some sort of 
compensation. The poor sergeant had nothing ; 
he went back to the barracks, and sank his indi- 
viduality in the ranks, where the men look so 



466 TENTIXG ON THE PLAINS. 

alike in their uniform it is almost impossible to 
distinguish the soldier that has acted the hero 
from one who is never aught but a poltroon. 
After the excitement of the peril I had passed 
was over, I no longer wondered that there was 
such violent opposition to women traveling with 
troops. The lesson lasted me a long time, as I 
was well aware what planning and preparation it 
cost to take us women along, in any case, when 
the regiment was on the move, and to make these 
efforts more difficult by my own heedlessness was 
too serious a mistake to be repeated. 

In spite of the drawbacks to a perfectly success- 
ful garrison, which was natural in the early career 
of a regiment, the winter had been full of pleas- 
ure to me ; but it came to a sad ending when the 
preparations for the departure of the troops began. 
The stitches that I put in the repairs to the blue 
flannel shirts were set with tears. I eagerly 
sought every opportunity to prepare the camping 
outfit. The mess-chest was filled with a few strong 
dishes, sacks were made and filled with coffee, 
sugar, flour, rice, etc., and a few cans of fruit and 
vegetables were packed away in the bottom of 
the chest. The means of transportation were so 
limited that every pound of baggage was a matter 
of consideration, and my husband took some of 
the space, that I thought ought to be devoted to 




TROPHIES OF THE CHASE IN GENERAL CUSTER's LIPRARY. 
467 



468 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

comforts, for a few books that he could stand read- 
ing and re-reading. EHza was the untiring one in 
preparing the outfit for the summer. She knew just 
when to administer comforting words, as I sighed 
over the preparations, and reminded me that "the 
Ginnel always did send for you, every chance he 
got, and war times on the Plains wan't no wuss 
than in Virginia." 

There was one joke that came up at every move 
we ever made, over which the General was always 
merry. ^The officers, in and out of our quarters 
daily, were wont to observe the unusual alacrity 
that I displayed when orders came to move. As 
I had but little care or anxiety about household 
affairs, the contrast with my extreme interest in 
the arrangements of the mess-chest, bedding and 
campaigning clothes was certainly marked. I 
longed for activity, to prevent me from showing 
my heavy heart, and really did learn to be some- 
what successful in crowding a good deal into a 
small space, and choosing the things that were 
most necessary. As the officers came in unan- 
nounced, they found me flying hither and thither, 
intent on my duties, and immediately saw an 
opportunity to tease the General, condoling with 
him because, having exhausted himself in ardu- 
ous packing for the campaign, he would be obliged 
to set out totally unfitted for the summer's hard- 



FRUGALITY RIDICULED. 469 

ships. After their departure, he was sure to turn 
to me, with roguery in his voice, and ask if I had 
noticed how sorry all those young fellows were 
for a man who was obliged to work so hard to 
^et his traps ready for a move. 

It was amusing to notice the indifferent manner 
in which some of the officers saw the careful and 
frugal preparing for the campaign. That first 
spring's experience was repeated in every after 
preparation. There were always those who took 
little or nothing themselves, but became experts 
at casual droppings in to luncheon or dinner with 
some painstaking provider, who endeavored vainly 
to get himself out of sight when the halt came for 
eating. This little scheme was occasionally per- 
sisted in merely to annoy one who, having shown 
some signs of parsimony, needed discipline in the 
eyes of those who really did a great deal of good 
by their ridicule. Among one group of officers, 
who had planned to mess together, the only pro- 
vision was a barrel of eggs. It is only necessary 
to follow a cavalry column over the crossing of 
one creek, to know the exact condition that such 
perishable food would be in at the end of the first 
day. There were two of the " plebes," as the 
youngest of the officers were called — as I recall 
them, bright, boyish, charming fellows — who 
openly rebelled against the rebuffs they claimed 



470 TEN7IXG OM THE PLAINS. 

were given them, when they attempted to prac- 
tice the dropping-in plan at another's meals. 

After one of these sallies on the enemy, they 
met the repulse with the announcement that if 
"those stingy old molly-coddles thought they had 
nothing to eat in their own outfit, they would 
show them," and took the occasion of one of their 
birthdays to prove that their resources were un- 
limited. Though the two endeavored to conceal 
the hour and place of this fete, a persistent watch- 
er discovered that the birthday breakfast con- 
sisted of a bottle of native champagne and corn 
bread. The hospitality of officers is too well 
known to make it necessary to explain that those 
with any tendency to penuriousness were excep- 
tions. An army legend is in existence of an 
officer who would not allow his hospitality to be 
set aside, even though he was very short of sup- 
plies. Being an officer of the old army, he was 
as formal over his repast as if it were abundant, 
and, with all ceremony, had his servant pass 
the rice. The guest, thinking it the first course, 
declined, whereupon the host, rather offended, 
replied, "Well, if you don't like the rice, help 
yourself to the mustard." This being the only 
other article on the bill of fare, there need be no 
doubt as to his final choice. When several officers 
decide to mess together on a campaign, each one 



LEARNING TO CAMPAIGN. 47 1 

promises to provide some one necessary supply. 
On one of these occasions, after the first day's 
march was ended, and orders for dinner were given 
to the servant, it was discovered that all but one 
had exercised his own judgment regarding what 
was the most necessary provision for comfort, 
and the one that had brought a loaf of bread in- 
stead of a demijohn of whisky was berated for 
his choice. 

In the first days of frontier life, our people 
knew but little about preparations for the field, 
and it took some time to realize that they were in 
a land where they could not live upon the country. 
It was a severe and lasting lesson to those using 
tobacco, when they found themselves without it,. 
and so far from civilization that there was no op- 
portunity of replenishing their supply. On the 
return from the expedition, the injuries as well as 
the enjoyments are narrated. Sometimes, we 
women, full of sympathy for the privations that 
had been endured, found that these um^e injuries ; 
sometimes we discovered that imagination had 
created them. We enjoyed, maliciously I am 
afraid, the growling of one man who never erred 
in any way, and consequently had no margin for 
any one that did ; calculating and far - seeing in 
his life, he felt no patience for those who, being 
young, were yet to learn these lessons of frugality 



472 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



that were born in him. He was still wrathful 
when he gave us an account of one we knew to be 
delightfully impudent when he was bent on 
teasing. When the provident man untied the 
strings of his tobacco-pouch, and settled himself 
for a smoke, the saucy young lieutenant was sure 
to stroll that way, and in tones loud enough for 
those near to hear him, drawl out, "I've got a 
match ; if any other fellow's got a pipe and tobac- 
co, I'll have a smoke." 

The expedition that was to leave Fort Riley was 
commanded by General Hancock, then at the 
head of the Department of the Missouri. He ar- 
rived at our post from Fort Leavenworth with 
seven companies of infantry and a battery of 
artillery. His letters to the Indian agents of the 
various tribes give the objects of the march into 
the Indian country. He wrote : 

" I have the honor to state, for your information, 
that I am at present preparing an expedition to 
the Plains, which will soon be ready to move. 
My object in doing so at this time is, to convince 
the Indians within the limits of this Department 
that we are able to punish any of them who may 
molest travelers across the Plains, or who may 
commit other hostilities against the whites. We 
desire to avoid, if possible, any troubles with the 
Indians, and to treat them with justice, and ac- 



A MILITAR Y LE TTER. 473 

cording" to the requirements of our treaties with 
them ; and I wish especially, in my dealings with 
them, to act through the agents of the Indian 
Department as far as it is possible to do so. If 
you, as their agent, can arrange these matters 
satisfactorily with them, we shall be pleased to 
defer the whole subject to you. In case of your 
inability to do so, I would be pleased to have you 
accompany me when I visit the country of your 
tribes, to show that the officers of the Government 
are acting in harmony. I shall be pleased to talk 
with any of the chiefs whom we may meet. I do 
not expect to make war against any of the Indians 
of your agency, unless they commence war 
against us." 

In General Custer's account, he says that " the 
Indians had been guilty of numerous thefts and 
murders during the preceding summer and au- 
tumn, for none of which had they been called to 
account. They had attacked the stations of the 
overland mail-route, killed the employees, burned 
the stations and captured the stock. Citizens 
had been murdered in their homes on the frontier 
of Kansas ; and murders had been committed on 
the Arkansas route. The principal perpetrators 
of these acts were the Cheyennes and Sioux. 
The agent of the former, if not a party to the 
murder on the Arkansas, knew who the guilty 



474 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



persons were, yet took no steps to bring the mur- 
derers to punishment. Such a course would have 
interfered with his trade and profits. It was not 
to punish for these sins of the past that the 
expedition was set on foot, but, rather, by its im- 
posing appearance and its early presence in the 
Indian country, to check or intimidate the Indians 
from a repetition of their late conduct. During 
the winter the leading chiefs and warriors had 
threatened that, as soon as the grass was up, the 
tribes would combine in a united outbreak along 
the entire frontier." 

There had been little opportunity to put the ex- 
pedition out of our minds for some time previous 
to its departure. The sound from the black- 
smith's shop, of the shoeing of horses, the drilling 
on the level ground outside of the post, and the 
loading of wagons about the quartermaster and 
commissary storehouses, went on all day long. 
At that time the sabre was more in use than it 
was later, and it seemed to me that I could never 
again shut my ears to the sound of the grindstone, 
when I found that the sabres were being sharp- 
ened. The troopers, when mounted, were curio- 
sities, and a decided disappointment to me. The 
horse, when prepared for the march, barely showed 
head and tail. My ideas of the dashing trooper 
going out to war, clad in gay uniform and curb- 



A CUMBERSOME LOAD. 



475 



ing a curvetting steed, faded into nothingness be- 
fore the reahty. Though the wrapping together 
of the blanket, overcoat and shelter-tent is made 
a study of the tactics, it could not be reduced to 
anything but a good-sized roll at the back of the 
saddle. The carbine rattled on one side of the 
soldier, slung from the broad strap over his 
shoulder, while a frying-pan, a tin-cup, a canteen, 
and a haversack of hard-tack clattered and bobbed 
about on his other side. There were possibly a 
hundred rounds of ammunition in his cartridge- 
belt, which took away all the symmetry that his 
waist might otherwise have had. If the company 
commander was not too strict, a short butcher- 
knife, thrust into a home-made leather case, kept 
company with the pistol. It was not a murder- 
ous weapon, but was used to cut up game or slice 
off the bacon, which, sputtering in the skillet at 
evening camp-fire, was the main feature of the 
soldier's supper. The tin utensils, the carbine and 
the sabre, kept up a continual din, as the horses 
seemingly crept over the trail at the rate of three 
to four miles an hour. In addition to the cumber- 
some load, there were sometimes lariats and iron 
picket-pins slung on one side of the saddle, to 
tether the animals when they grazed at night. 
There was nothing picturesque about this lumber- 
ing cavalryman, and, besides, our men did not 



476 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

then sit their horses with the serenity that they 
eventually attained. If the beast shied or kicked 
— for the poor thing was itself learning to do sol- 
diering, and occasionally flung out his heels, or 
snatched the bit in his mouth in protest — it was a 
question whether the newly made Mars would 
land on the crupper or hang helplessly among the 
domestic utensils suspended to his saddle. How 
sorry I was for them, they were so bruised and 
lamed by their first lessons in horsemanship. 
Every one laughed at every one else, and this 
made it seem doubly trying to me. I remembered 
my own first lessons among fearless cavalrymen 
— a picture of a trembling figure, about as uncer- 
tain in the saddle as if it were a wave of the sea, 
the hands cold and nerveless, and, I regret to add, 
the tears streaming down my cheeks ! These 
recollections made me writhe when I saw a soldier 
describing an arc in the air, and his self-freed 
horse galloping off to the music of tin and steel 
in concert, for no such compulsory landing was 
ever met, save by a roar of derision from the col- 
umn. Just in proportion as I had suffered for their 
misfortunes, did I enjoy the men when, after 
the campaign, they returned, perfect horsemen 
and with such physiques as might serve for a 
sculptor's model. 

At the time the expedition formed at Fort Riley, 



INDIAN WARFARE A REALITY. 477 

I had little realization what a serious affair an In- 
dian campaign was. We had heard of the out- 
rages committed on the settlers, the attacking of 
the overland supply-trains, and the burning of the 
stage-stations ; but the rumors seemed to come 
from so far away that the reality was never 
brought home to me until I saw for myself what 
horror attends Indian depredations. Even a dis- 
aster to one that seemed to.be of our own fam- 
ily failed to implant in me that terror of In- 
dians which, a month or two later, I realized to its 
fullest extent by personal danger. I must tell my 
reader, by going back to the days of the war, 
something of the one that first showed us what 
Indian warfare really was. It was a sad prepara- 
tion for the campaign that followed. 

After General Custer had been promoted from 
a captain to a brigadier-general, in 1863, his brig- 
ade lay quietly in camp for a few days, to recruit 
before setting out on another raid. This gave the 
unusual privilege of lying in bed a little later in 
the morning, instead of springing out before dawn. 
For several mornings in succession, my husband 
told me, he saw a little boy steal through a small 
opening in the tent, take out his clothes and boots, 
and after a while creep back with them, brushed 
and folded. At last he asked Eliza where on 
earth that cadaverous little image came from, and 



478 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

she explained that it was " a poor Uttle picked 
sparrow of a chile, who had come hangin' aroun' 
the camp-fire, mos' starved," and added, " Now, 
Ginnel, you mustn't go and turn him off, for he's 
got nowhar to go, and 'pears like he's crazy to 
wait on you." The General questioned him, and 
found that the boy, being unhappy at home, had run 
away. Enough of his sad life was revealed to con- 
vince the General that it was useless to attempt to 
return him to his Eastern home, for he was a de- 
termined little fellow, and there was no question 
that he would have fled again. His parents were 
rich, and my husband evidently knew who they 
were ; but the story was confidential, so I never 
knew anything of him, except that he was always 
showing signs of good-breeding, even though he 
lived about the camp-fire. A letter that my hus- 
band wrote to his own home at that time spoke of a 
hound puppy that one of his soldiers had given to 
him, and then of a little waif, called Johnnie, 
whom he had taken as his servant. "The boy," 
he wrote, " is so fond of the pup he takes him to 
bed with him." Evidently the child began his 
service with devotion, for the General adds : " I 
think he would rather starve than to see me go 
hungry. I have dressed him in soldier's clothes, 
and he rides one of my horses on the march. 
Returning from the march one day, I found John- 



DRILLING A SERVANT. ^yg 

nie with his sleeves rolled up. He had washed 
all my soiled clothes and hung them on the bushes 
to dry. Small as he is, they were very well done." 
Soon after Johnnie became my husband's serv- 
ant, we were married, and I was taken down to 
the Virginia farm-house, that was used as brigade 
headquarters. By this time, Eliza had initiated 
the boy into all kinds of work. She, in turn, fed 
him, mended his clothes, and managed him, lord- 
ing it over the child in a lofty but never unkind 
manner. She had tried to drill him to wait on the 
table, as she had seen the duty performed on the 
old plantation. At our first dinner he was so 
bashful I thought he would drop everything. 
My husband did not believe in having a head and 
foot to the table when we were alone, so poor little 
Johnnie was asked to put my plate beside the 
General's. Though he was so embarrassed in this 
new phase of his life, he was never so intimidated 
by the responsibility Eliza had pressed upon him 
that he was absent-minded or confused regarding 
one point : he invariably passed each dish to the 
General first. Possibly my husband noticed it. 
I certainly did not. There was a pair of watchful 
eyes at a crack in the kitchen-door, which took in 
this little incident. One day the General came 
into our room laughing, his eyes sparkling with 
fun over Eliza's description of how she had noticed 



480 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Johnnie always serving the General first, and had 
labored with him in secret, to teach him to wait 
on the lady first. "It's manners," she said, be- 
lieving that was a crushing argument. But John- 
nie, usually obedient, persistently refused, always 
replying that the General was the one of us two 
that ranked, and he ought to be served first. 

At the time of General Kilpatrick's famous raid, 
when he went to take Richmond, General Custer 
was ordered to make a detour in an opposite direc- 
tion, in order to deceive the Confederate army as 
to the real object to be accomplished. This ruse 
worked so successfully, that General Custer and 
his command were put in so close and dangerous 
a situation it was with difficulty that any of them 
escaped. The General told me that when the 
pursuit of the enemy was hottest, and everyone 
doing his utmost to escape, he saw Johnnie driv- 
ing a light covered wagon at a gallop, which was 
loaded with turkeys and chickens. He had re- 
ceived his orders from Eliza, before setting out, to 
bring back something for the mess, and the boy 
had carried out her directions with a vengeance. 
He impressed into his service the establishment 
that he drove, and filled it with poultry. Even in 
the melee and excitement of retreat, the General 
was wonderfully amused, and amazed too, at the 
little fellow's fearlessness. He was too fond of him 



A DARING FORAGER. 48 I 

to leave him in danger, so he galloped in his direc- 
tion and called to him, as he stood up lashing his 
horse, to abandon his capture or he would be him- 
self a prisoner. The boy obeyed, but hesitatingly, 
cut the harness, sprang upon the horse's un- 
saddled back, and was soon with the main column. 
The General, by this delay, was obliged to take to 
an open field to avoid capture, and leap a high 
fence in order to overtake the retreating troops. 

He became more and more interested in the 
boy, who was such a combination of courage and 
fidelity, and finally arranged to have him enlist 
as a soldier. The war was then drawing to its 
close, and he secured to the lad a large bounty, 
which he placed at interest for him, and after the 
surrender persuaded Johnnie to go to school. It 
was difficult to induce him to leave ; but my hus- 
band realized what injustice it was to keep him in 
the menial position to which he desired to return, 
and finally left him, with the belief that he had 
instilled some ambition into the boy. 

A year and a half afterward, as we were stand- 
ing on the steps of the gallery of our quarters at 
Fort Riley, we noticed a stripling of a lad walk- 
ing toward us, with his head hanging on his 
breast, in the shy, embarrassed manner of one 
who doubts his reception. With a glad cry, my 
husband called out that it was Johnnie Cisco, and 



482 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

bounded down the steps to meet him. After he 
was assured of his welcome, he said it was impos- 
sible for him to stay away, he longed so con- 
stantly to be again with us, and added that if we 
would only let him stay, he would not care what 
he did. Of course, the General regretted the 
giving up of his school ; but, now that he had 
made the long journey, there was no help for it, 
and he decided that he should stay with us until 
he could find him employment, for he was deter- 
mined that he should not re-enlist. The boy's old 
and tried friend, Eliza, at once assumed her posi- 
tion of "missus," and, kind-hearted tyrant! gave 
him every comfort and made him her vassal, 
without a remonstrance from the half-grown man, 
for he was only too glad to be in the sole home 
he knew, no matter on what terms. Soon after 
his coming, the General obtained from one of the 
managers of the Wells-Fargo Express Company 
a place of messenger ; and the recommendation he 
gave the boy for honesty and fidelity was con- 
firmed over and over again by the officers of the 
express line. He was known on the entire route 
from Ogden to Denver, and was entrusted with 
immense amounts of gold in its transmission from 
the Colorado mines to the States. Several times 
he came to our house for a vacation, and my hus- 
band had always the unvarying and genuine 



A BOY HERO. 483 

welcome that no one doubted when once given, 
and he did not fail to praise and encourage the 
friendless fellow. Eliza, after learning what the 
lad had passed through, in his dangers from 
Indians, treated him like a conquering hero, but 
alternately bullied and petted him still. At last 
there came a long interval between his visits, and 
my husband sent to the express people to inquire. 
Poor Johnnie had gone like many another brave 
employee of that venturesome firm. In a coura- 
geous defense of the passengers and the company's 
gold, when the stage was attacked, he had been 
killed by the Indians. Eliza kept the battered 
valise that her favorite had left with us, and 
mourned over it as if it had been something hu- 
man. I found her cherishing the bag in a hidden 
corner, and recalling to me, with tears, how 
warm-hearted Johnnie was, saying that the night 
the news of her old mother's death came to her 
from Virginia, he had sat up till daybreak to keep 
the fire going. " Miss Libbie, I tole him to go to 
bed, but he said, ' No, Eliza, I can't do it, when 
you are in trouble : when I had no friends and 
couldn't help myself, you helped me.' " After 
that, the lad was always " poor Johnnie," and 
many a boy with kinsfolk of his own is not more 
sincerely mourned. 

As the days drew nearer for the expedition to 



484 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

set out, my husband tried to keep my spirits up 
by reminding me that the council to be held with 
the chiefs of the war-hke tribes, when they reach- 
ed that part of the country infested with the 
marauding Indians, was something he hoped 
might result in our speedy reunion. He endeav- 
ored to induce me to think, as he did, that the 
Indians would be so impressed with the magni- 
tude of the expedition, that, after the council, they 
would accept terms and abandon the war-path. 
Eight companies of our own regiment were going 
out, and these, with infantry and artillery, made a 
force of fourteen hundred men. It was really a 
large expedition, for the Plains ; but the recollec- 
tions of the thousands of men in the Third 
Cavalry Division, which was the General's com- 
mand during the war, made the expedition seem 
too small even for safety. 

No one can enumerate the terrors, imaginary 
and real, that filled the hearts of women on the 
border in those desperate days. The buoyancy 
of my husband had only a momentary effect in 
the last hours of his stay. That time seemed to 
fly fast ; but no amount of excitement and bustle 
of preparation closed my eyes, even momentarily, 
to the dragging hours that awaited me. Such 
partings are a torture that it is difficult even to 
refer to. My husband added another struggle to 



A SILENT COLUMN. 485 

my lot by imploring me not to let him see the 
tears that he knew, for his sake, I could keep back 
until he was out of sight. Though the band 
played its usual departing tune, " The Girl I Left 
Behind Me," if there was any music in the notes, 
it was all in the minor key to the men who left 
their wives behind them. No expedition goes out 
with shout and song, if loving, weeping women 
are left behind. Those who have not assumed the 
voluntary fetters that bind us for weal or for woe, 
and render it impossible to escape suffering while 
those we love suffer, or rejoicing while those to 
whom we are united are jubilant, felt too keenly 
for their comrades when they watched them tear 
themselves from clinging arms inside the thresh- 
old of their homes, even to keep up the* stream of 
idle chaffing that only such occasions can stop. 
There was silence as the column left the garrison. 
Alas ! the closed houses they left were as still as 
if death had set its seal upon the door ; no sound 
but the sobbing and moans of women's breaking 
hearts. 

Eliza stood guard at my door for hours and 
hours, until I had courage, and some degree of 
peace, to take up life again. A loving, suffering 
woman came to sleep with me for a night or two. 
The hours of those first wakeful nights seemed 
endless. The anxious, unhappy creature beside 



486 TENTmc OS' rim plains. 

me said, gently, in the small hours, " Libbie, are 
you awake ?" " Oh, yes," I replied, " and have 
been for ever so long." " What are you doing?" 
*' Saying over hymns, snatches of poetry, the 
Lord's Prayer backward, counting, etc., to try to 
put myself to sleep." " Oh, say some rhyme to 
me, in mercy's name, for I am past all hope of 
sleep while I am so unhappy !" Then I repeated, 
over and over again, a single verse, written, perhaps, 
by someone who, like ourselves, knew little of the 
genius of poetry, but, alas ! much of what makes 
up the theme of all the sad verses of the world. 

" There's something in the parting hour 

That chills the warmest heart ; 
But kindred, comrade, lover, friend, 

Are fated all to part. 
But this I've seen, and many a pang 

Has pressed it on my mind — 
The one that goes is happier 

Than he who stays behind." 

Perhaps after I had said this and another similar 
verse over and over again, in a sing-song, droning 
voice, the regular breathing at my side told me 
that the poor tired heart had found temporary for- 
getfulness ; but when we came to the sad reality 
of our lonely life next day, every object in our 
quarters reminded us what it is to " stay behind." 
There are no lonely women who will not realize 
how the very chairs, or anything in common use, 



IWILIGHT'S ''SOBER LIVERY," 487 



» 



take to themselves voices and call out reminders 
of what has been and what now is. Fill up the 
time as we might, there came each day, at 
twilight, an hour that should be left out of every 
solitary life. It is meant only for the happy, who 
need make no subterfuges to fill up hours that are 
already precious. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A PRAIRIE FIRE LETTERS FROM THE GENERAL LEND- 
ING A DOG FOR A BEDFELLOW BEALTy's BOWS 

AND BEAUX NEGRO RECRUITS TURN THE POST 

INTO A CIRCUS LADIES FIRED ON BY A SENTI- 
NEL THE SUGAR MUTINY SMALL-POX IN THE 

GARRISON GENERAL GIBBS RESTORES ORDER 

AN EARTHQUAKE AT FORT RILEY. 

T T was a great change for us from the bustle and 
excitement of the cavalry, as they prepared 
for the expedition, to the dull routine of an infan- 
try garrison that replaced the dashing troopers. 
It was intensely quiet, and we missed the clatter 
of the horses' hoofs, the click of the curry-comb, 
which had come from the stables at the morning 
and evening grooming of the animals, the voices 
of the officers drilling the recruits, the constant 
passing and repassing of mounted men in front of 
our quarters ; above all, the enlivening trumpet- 
calls ringing out all day, and we rebelled at the 
drum and bugle that seemed so tame in contrast. 
There were no more long rides for me, for Custis 
Lee was taken out at my request, as I feared no 
one would give him proper care at the post. Even 



A DESOLATE GARRISON. 489 

the little chapel where the officers' voices had 
added their music to the chants, was now nearly 
deserted. The chaplain was an interesting man, 
and the General and most of the garrison had 
attended the services during the winter. Only 
three women were left to respond, and, as we had 
all been reared in other churches, we quaked a 
good deal, for fear our responses would not come 
in the right place. They did not lack in earnest- 
ness, for when had we lonely creatures such cause 
to send up petitions as at that time, when those 
for whom we prayed were advancing into an 
enemy's country day by day ! Never had the 
beautiful Litany, that asks deliverance for all in 
trouble, sorrow, perplexity, temptation, born such 
significance to us as then. No one can dream, un- 
til it is brought home to him, how space doubles, 
trebles, quadruples, when it is impossible to see 
the little wire that, fragile as it seems, chains one 
to the absent. It is difficult to realize, now that 
our country is cobwebbed with telegraph lines, 
what a despairing feeling it was, in those days, to 
get far beyond the blessed nineteenth-century 
mode of communication. He who crosses the 
ocean knows a few days of such uncertainty, but 
over the pathless sea of Western prairie it was 
chaos, after the sound of the last horse's hoof was 
lost in the distance. 



490 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



We had not been long alone, when a great dan- 
ger threatened us. The level plateau about our 
post, and the valley along the river near us, were 
covered with dry prairie grass, which grows 
thickly and is matted down into close clumps. It 
was discovered, one day, that a narrow thread of 
fire was creeping on in our direction, scorching 
these tufts into shrivelled brown patches that were 
ominously smoking when first seen. As I begin 
to write of what followed, I find it difficult ; for 
even those living in Western States and Territo- 
ries regard descriptions of prairie-fires as exagger- 
ated, and are apt to look upon their own as the 
extreme to which they ever attain. I have seen 
the mild type, and know that a horseman rides 
through such quiet conflagrations in saf-ety. The 
trains on some of our Western roads pass harmless 
through belts of country when the flames are about 
them ; there is no impending peril, because the 
winds are moderate. When a tiny flame is dis- 
covered in Kansas or other States, where the wind 
blows a hurricane so much of the time, there is not 
a moment to lose. Although we saw what was 
hardly more than a suspicion of smoke, and the 
slender, sinuous, red tongue along the ground, we 
women had read enough of the fires in Kansas to 
know that the small blaze meant that our lives 
were in jeopardy. Most of us were then unac- 



PRAIRIE GRASS ABLAZE. 



491 



quainted with those precautions which the experi- 
enced Plains-man takes, and, indeed, we had no 
ranchmen near to set us the example of caution 
which the frontiersman so soon learns. We 
should have had furrows ploughed around the en- 
tire post in double lines, a certain distance apart, 
to check the approach of fire. There was no time 
to fight the foe with a like weapon, by burning 
over a portion of the grass between the advan- 
cing blaze and our post. The smoke rose higher 
and higher beyond us, and curling, creeping 
fire began to ascend into waves of flame with 
alarming rapidity, and in an incredibly short 
time we were overshadowed with a dark pall of 
smoke. 

The Plains were then new to us. It is impossible 
to appreciate their vastness at first. The very 
idea was hard to realize, that from where we lived 
we looked on an uninterrupted horizon. We felt 
that it must be the spot where some one first said, 
" The sky fits close down all around." It fills the 
soul with wonder and awe to look upon the vast- 
ness of that sea of land for the first time. As the 
sky became lurid, and the blaze swept on toward 
us, surging to and fro in waving lines as it ap- 
proached nearer and nearer, it seemed that the end 
of the world, when all shall be rolled together as a 
scroll, had really come. The whole earth appeared 



492 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



to be on fire. The sky was a sombre canopy- 
above us, on which flashes of brilUant hght sud- 
denly appeared as the flames rose, fanned by a 
fresh gust of wind. There were no screams nor 
cries, simply silent terror and shiverings of horror, 
as we women huddled together to watch the 
remorseless fiend advancing with what appeared 
to be inevitable annihilation of the only shelter 
we had. Every woman's thoughts turned to her 
natural protector, now far away, and longed with 
unutterable longing for one who, at the approach 
of danger, stood like a bulwark of courage and 
defense. The river was half a mile away, and our 
feet could not fly fast enough to reach the water 
before the enemy would be upon us. There was 
no such a thing as a fire-engine. The Government 
then had not even provided the storehouses and 
quarters with the Babcock Extinguisher. We 
were absolutely powerless, and could only fix our 
fascinated gaze upon the approachmg foe. 

In the midst of this appalling scene, we were 
startled anew by a roar and shout from the 
soldiers' barracks. Some one had, at last, pres- 
ence of mind to marshal the men into line, and, 
assuming the commanding tone that ensures action 
and obedience in emergencies, gave imperative 
orders. Every one — citizen employees, soldiers 
and officers — seized gunny sacks, blankets, poles, 



CRUSHING OUT FIRE. 



49: 



anything available that came in their way, and 
raced wildly beyond the post into the midst of the 
blazing- grass. Forming a cordon, they beat and 
lashed the flames with the blankets, so twisted as 
to deal powerful blows. It was a frenzied fight. 
The soldiers yelled, swore and leaped frantically 
upon beds of blazing grass, condensing a lifetime 
of riotous energy into these perilous moments. 
We women were not breathless and trembling over 
fears for ourselves alone : our hearts were filled 
with terror for the brave men who were working 
for our deliverance. They were men to whom we 
had never spoken, nor were we likely ever to speak 
to them, so separated are the soldiers in barracks 
from an officer's household. Sometimes we saw 
their eyes following us respectfully, as we rode 
about the garrison, seeming to have in them an air 
of possession, as if saying, " That's our captain's or 
our colonel's wife." Now, they were showing their 
loyalty, for there are always a few of a regiment 
left behind to care for the company property, or 
to take charge of the gardens for the soldiers. 
These men, and all the other brave fellows with 
them, imperiled their lives in order that the 
officers who had gone out for Indian warfare, 
might come' home and find "all's well." Let 
soldiers know that a little knot of women are 
looking to them as their saviors, and you will 



494 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

see what nerves of iron they have, what inexhaust- 
ible strength they can exhibit. 

No sooner had the flames been stamped out of 
one portion of the plain, than the whole body of 
men were obliged to rush off in another direction 
and begin the thrashing and tramping anew. It 
seemed to us that there was no such thing as 
conquering anything so insidious. But the wind, 
that had been the cause of our danger, saved us 
at last. That very wind which we had reviled all 
winter for its doleful bowlings around our quar- 
ters and down the chimneys ; that self-same wind 
that had infuriated us by blowing our hats off 
when we went out to walk, or impeded our steps 
by twisting our skirts into hopeless folds about 
our ankles — was now to be our savior. Suddenly 
veering, as is its fashion in Kansas, it swept the 
long tongues of flame over the bluffs beyond us, 
where the lonely coyote and its mate were driven 
into their lair. By this vagary of the element, 
that is never anywhere more variable than in 
Kansas, our quarters, our few possessions, and no 
doubt our lives, were saved. With faces begrimed 
and blistered, their clothes black with soot and 
smoke, their hands burnt and numb from violent 
effort, the soldiers and citizen employees dragged 
their exhausted bodies back to garrison, and 
dropped down anywhere to rest. 



A SOLDIER'S DEVOTION. 



495 



The tinge of green that had begun to appear 
was now gone, and the charred, smoke-stained 
earth spread as far as we could see, making more 
desolate the arid, treeless country upon which we 
looked. It was indeed a blackened and dismal 
desert that encircled us, and we knew that we 
were deprived of the delight of the tender green 
of early spring, which carpets the Plains for a 
brief time before the sun parches and turns to 
russet and brown the turf of our Western prairies. 

As we sat on the gallery, grieving over this 
ruin of spring, Mrs. Gibbs gathered her two boys 
closer to her, as she shuddered over another experi- 
ence with prairie fire, where her children were in 
peril. The little fellows, in charge of a soldier, 
were left temporarily on the bank of a creek. 
Imagine the horror of a mother who finds, as she 
did, the grass on fire and a broad strip of flame 
separating her from her children ! Before the 
little ones could follow their first instinct, and 
thereby encounter certain death by attempting to 
run through the fire to their mother, the devoted 
soldier, who had left them but a moment, realizing 
that they would instantly seek their mother, ran 
like an antelope to where the fire-band narrowed, 
leaped the flame, seized the little men, and 
plunged with mad strides to the bank of the 
creek, where, God be praised ! nature provides 



496 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



a refuge from the relentless foe of our Western 
plains. 

In our Western prairie fires the flame is often a 
mile long, perhaps not rising over a foot high, 
but, sweeping from six to ten miles an hour, it re- 
quires the greatest exertion of the ranchmen, with 
all kinds of improvised flails, to beat out the fire. 
The final resort of a frontiersman, if the flames are 
too much for him to overcome, is to take refuge 
with his family, cattle, horses, etc., in the garden, 
where the growing vegetables make an effectual 
protection. Alas, when he finds it safe to venture 
from the green oasis, the crops are not only gone, 
but the roots are burned, and the ground valueless 
from the parching of the terrible heat. When a 
prairie fire is raging at ten miles an hour, the hur- 
ricane lifts the tufts of loosened bunch grass, 
which in occasional clumps is longer than the rest, 
carrying it far beyond the main fire, and thus 
starting a new flame. No matter how weary the 
pioneer may be after a day's march, he neglects 
no precautions that can secure him from fire. He 
twists into wisp the longest of the bunch grass, 
trailing it around the camp ; the fire thus started is 
whipped out by the teamsters, after it has burned 
over a sufficient area for safety. They follow the 
torch of the leader with branches of the green wil- 
low or twigs of cotton-wood bound together. 



498 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The first letters, sent back from the expedition 
by scouts, made red-letter days for us. The offi- 
cial envelope, stained with rain and mud. bursting" 
open with the many pages crowded in, sometimes 
even tied with a string by some messenger through 
whose hands the parcel passed, told stories of the 
vicissitudes of the missive in the difficult journey 
to our post. These letters gave accounts of the 
march to Fort Larned, where a great camp was 
established, to await the arrival of the chiefs with 
whom the council was to be held. While the run- 
ners were absent on their messages to the tribes, 
some effort was made to protect the troops against 
the still sharp winds of early spring. The halt 
and partly permanent camp was most fortunate ; 
for had the troops been on the march, a terrible 
snow-storm that ensued would have wrought 
havoc, for the cold became so intense, and the 
snow so blinding, it was only through great pre- 
cautions that loss of life was prevented. The 
animals were given an extra ration of oats, while 
the guards were obliged to take whips and strike 
at the horses on the picket-line, to keep them in 
motion and prevent them from freezing. The 
snow was eight inches deep, a remarkable fall for 
Kansas at that time of the year. As we read over 
these accounts, which all the letters contained, 
though mine touched lightly on the subject, owing 



BORROWING A BEDFELLOW. ^gg 

to my husband's fixed determination to write of 
the bright side, we felt that we had hardly a right 
to our fires and comfortable quarters. There were 
officers on the expedition who could not keep 
warm. A number were then enduring their first 
exposure to the elements, and I remember that 
several, who afterward became stalwart, healthy 
men, were then partial invalids, owing to seden- 
tary life in the States, delicate lungs or climatic 
influences. 

In my husband's letters there was a laughable 
description of his lending his dog to keep a friend 
warm. The officer came into the tent after dark, 
declaring that no amount of bedding had any 
effect in keeping out the cold, and he had come 
to borrow a dog, to see if he could have one night's 
uninterrupted rest. Our old hound was offered,, 
because he could cover such a surface, for he was 
a big brute, and when he once located himself he; 
rarely moved until morning. My husband forgot, 
in giving Rover his recommendation, to mention 
a habit he had of sleeping audibly, besides a little 
fashion of twitching his legs and thumping his 
cumbrous tail, in dreams that were evidently of 
the chase, or of battles he was Hving over, in which 
" Turk," the bull-dog, was being vanquished. He 
was taken into the neighbor's tent, and induced 
to settle for the night, after the General's coaxing. 



500 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



and pretense of going to sleep beside him. Later, 
when he went back to see how Rover worked as 
• a portable furnace, he found the officer sound 
asleep on his back, emitting such nasal notes as 
only a stout man is equal to, while Rover lay 
sprawled over the broad chest of his host, where 
he had crept after he was asleep, snoring with an 
occasional interlude of a long-drawn snort, intro- 
duced in a manner peculiar to fox-hounds. The 
next morning my husband was not in the least 
surprised, after what he had seen the night before, 
to receive a call from the officer, who presented a 
request to exchange dogs. He said that when he 
made the proposal, he did not expect to have a 
bedfellow that would climb up over his lungs and 
crush all the breath out of his body. Instead of 
showing proper sympathy, the General threw him- 
self on his pallet and roared with laughter. 

All these camp incidents brightened up the long 
letters, and kept me from realizing, as I read, what 
were the realities of that march, undertaken so 
early in the season. But as the day advanced, 
and the garrison exchanged the news contained 
in all the letters that had arrived from the expedi- 
tion, I could not deceive myself into the belief 
that the way of our regiment had thus far been 
easy. 

With all my endeavors to divide the day 



TIME DRAGS. 5OI 

methodically, and enforce certain duties upon 
myself, knowing well that it was my only refuge 
from settled melancholy, I found time a laggard.- 
It is true, my clothes were in a deplorable state, 
for while our own officers were with us they looked 
to us to fill up their leisure hours. The General, 
always devoted to his books, could read in the 
midst of our noisy circle ; but I was never permit- 
ted much opportunity, and managed to keep up 
with the times by my husband's account of the 
important news, and by the agreeable method of 
listening to the discussions of the men upon topics 
of the hour. If, while our circle was intact, I tried 
to sew, a ride, a walk or a game of parlor croquet 
was proposed, to prevent my even mending our 
clothing. Now that we were alone, it was neces- 
sary to make the needle fly. Eliza was set up with 
a supply of blue-checked gowns and aprons, while 
my own dresses were reconstructed, the riding- 
habit was fortified with patches, and any amount 
of stout linen thread disappeared in strengthening 
the seams ; for between the hard riding and the 
gales of wind we encountered, the destruction of 
a habit was rapid, 

Diana, with the elastic heart of a coquette, had 
not only sped the parting, but welcomed the 
coming guest ; for hardly had the sound of the 
trumpet died away, before a new officer began to 



C02 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

frequent our parlor. It was then the fashion for 
men to wear a tiny neck-bow, called a butterfly 
tie. They were made on a pasteboard founda- 
tion, with a bit of elastic cord to fasten them to 
the shirt-stud. I knew of no pasteboard nearer 
than Leavenw^orth ; but in the curly head there 
were devices to meet the exigency. I found 
Diana with her lap full of photographs, cutting up 
the portraits of the departed beaux, to make ties 
for the next. Whether the new suitor ever dis- 
covered that he was wearing at his neck the face 
of a predecessor, I do not know ; but this I do 
remember, that the jagged, frayed appearance 
that the girl's dresses presented when turned 
inside out, betrayed where the silk was procured 
to make the neck-ties. She had gouged out bits 
of the material where the skirt was turned in, and 
when we attempted to remodel ourselves and cut 
down the voluminous breadths of that time into 
tightly gored princess gowns, we were put to it to 
make good the deficiencies, and " piece out " the 
silk that had been sacrificed to her flirtations. 

Succeeding letters from my husband gave an 
account of his first experience with the perfidy of 
the Indians. The council had been held, and it 
was hoped that effectual steps were taken to estab- 
lish peace. But, as is afterward related, the chiefs 
gave them the slip and deserted the village. Even 



A 



NEGROES AS SOLDIERS. 



503 



in the midst of hurried preparations to follow the 
renegades, my husband stopped, in order that his 
departure might not make me depressed, to give 
an account of a joke that they all had on one of 
their number, who dared to eat soup out of an 
Indian kettle still simmering over the deserted fire. 
The General pressed the retreating Indians so 
closely, the very night of their departure, that 
they were obliged to divide into smaller detach- 
ments, and even the experienced plainsmen could 
no longer trace a trail. 

Meanwhile, as our officers were experiencing all 
sorts of new phases in life on their first march 
over the Plains, our vicissitudes were increasing at 
what seemed to be the peaceful Fort Riley. I 
had seen with dismay that the cavalry were re- 
placed by negro infantry, and found that they 
were to garrison the post for the summer. I had 
never seen negroes as soldiers, and these raw re- 
cruits had come from plantations, where I had 
known enough of their life, while in Texas and 
Louisiana, to realize what an irresponsible, child's 
existence it was. Entirely dependent on some 
one's care, and without a sense of obligation of any 
kind, they were exempt from the necessity of 
thinking about the future. Their time had been 
spent in following the directions of the overseer 
in the corn-field or cotton brake by day, and be- 



^ 



504 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



gulling the night with the coon-hunt or the banjo. 
The early days of their soldiering were a reign of 
terror to us women, in our lonely, unprotected 
homes. It was very soon discovered that the 
officer who commanded them was for the first 
time accustoming himself to colored troops, and 
did not know how to keep in check the boister- 
ous, undisciplined creatures. He was a courteous, 
quiet man, of scholarly tastes, and evidently enter- 
tained the belief that moral suasion would event- 
ually effect any purpose. The negroes, doubtless 
discovering what they could do under so mild a 
commander, grew each day more lawless. They 
used the parade-ground, which our officers had 
consecrated to the most formal of ceremonies, 
like dress-parades and guard-mount, for a play- 
ground ; turning hand-springs all over the sprout- 
ing grass, and vaulting in leap-frog over the bent 
back of a comrade. If it were possible for people 
in the States to realize how sacred the parade- 
ground of a Western post is, how hurriedly a 
venturesome cow or loose horse is marshaled off, 
how pompously every one performs the military 
duties permitted on this little square ; how even 
the color-sergeant, who marches at measured gait 
to take down and furl the garrison flag, when the 
evening gun announces that the sun has been, by 
the royal mandate of military law, permitted to 



DESECRATED GROUND. 



505 



set — they would then understand with what per- 
turbation we women witnessed the desecration 
of what had been looked upon as hallowed earth. 
The sacrilege of these monkey acrobats turning" 
somersaults over the ground, their elongated heels 
vibrating in the air, while they stood upon their 
heads in front of our windows, made us very in- 
dignant. When one patted "juba," and a group 
danced, we seemed transformed into a discon- 
nected minstrel show. There was not a trace of 
the well-conducted post of a short time before. 

All this frivolity was but the prelude to serious 
trouble. The joy with which the negroes came 
into possession of a gun for the first time in their 
lives, would have been ludicrous had it not been 
extremely dangerous. They are eminently a race 
given over to display. This was exhibited in their 
attempts to make themselves marksmen in a single 
day. One morning we were startled by a shot 
coming from the barracks. It was followed by a 
rush of men out of the doors, running wildly 
to and fro, yelling with alarm. We knew that 
some disaster had occurred, and it proved to be 
the instant death of a too confiding negro, who 
had allowed himself to be cast for the part of 
William Tell's son. His accidental murderer was 
a man that had held a gun in his hand that week 
for the first time. 



5o6 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



They had no sort of idea how to care for their 
health. The ration of a soldier is so large that a 
man who can eat it all in a day is renowned as a 
glutton. I think but few instances ever occur 
where the entire ration is consumed by one man. 
It is not expected, and, fortunately, with all the 
economy of the Government, the supply has never 
been cut down ; but the surplus is sold and a com- 
pany fund established. By this means, the meagre 
fare is increased by buying vegetables, if it hap- 
pen to be a land where they can be obtained. 
The negroes, for the first time in possession of all 
the coffee, pork, sugar and hard-tack they wanted, 
ate inordinately. There was no one to compel 
them to cleanliness. If a soldier in a white regi- 
ment is very untidy the men become indignant, 
and as the voluminous regulations provide direc- 
tions only for the scrubbing of the quarters and 
not of the men, they sometimes take the affair 
into their own hands, and, finding from their cap- 
tain that they vs^ill not be interfered with, the un- 
tidy one is taken on a compulsory journey to the 
creek and " ducked " until the soldiers consider 
him endurable. The negroes at that time had no 
idea of encountering the chill of cold water on 
their tropical skins, and suffered the consequences 
very soon. Pestilence broke out among them. 
Small-pox, black measles and other contagious dis- 



INFECTED AIR. 507 

eases raged, while the soldier's enemy, scurvy, 
took possession. We were within a stone's-throw 
of the barracks. Of course the illest among them 
were quarantined in hospital-tents outside the gar- 
rison ; but to look over to the infested barracks 
and realize what lurked behind the walls, was, 
to say the least, uncomfortable for those of us 
who were near enough to breathe almost the 
same air. 

Added to this, we felt that, with so much indis- 
criminate firing, a shot might at any time enter 
our windows. One evening a few women were 
walking outside the garrison. Our limits were not 
so circumscribed, at that time, as they were in al- 
most all the places where I was stationed afterward. 
A sentinel always walked a beat in front of a small 
arsenal outside of the post, and, overcome with 
the grandeur of carrying a gun and wearing a 
uniform, he sought to impress his soldierly quali- 
ties on anyone approaching by a stentorian " Who 
comes thar ? " It was entirely unnecessary, as it 
was light enough to see the fluttering skirts of 
women, for the winds kept our drapery in con- 
stant motion. Almost instantly after his chal- 
lenge, the flash of his gun and the whiz of a 
bullet past us made us aware that our lives were 
spared only because of his inaccurate aim. Of 
course that ended our evening walks, and it was 




208 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

a great deprivation, as the monotony of a garrison 
becomes almost unbearable. 

There was one person who profited by the 
presence of the negro troops. Our Eliza was 
such a belle, that she would have them elevated 
into too exalted a sphere to wait on us, had she 
not been accustomed to constant adulation from 
the officers' body-servants from the time, as she ex- 
pressed it, when she " entered the service." Still, 
it was a distraction, of which she availed herself 
in our new post, to receive new beaux, tire of them, 
quarrel and discard them for fresh victims. They 
waited on her assiduously, and I suspect they 
dined daily in our kitchen, as long as their brief 
season of favor lasted. They even sought to 
curry favor with Eliza by gifts to me, snaring 
quail, imprisoning them in cages made of cracker- 
boxes, or bringing dandelion greens or wild- 
flowers as they appeared in the dells. For all 
these gifts I was duly grateful, but I was very 
much afraid of a negro soldier, nevertheless. 

At last our perplexities and frights reached a 
climax. One night we heard the measured tramp 
of feet over the gravel in the road in front of our 
quarters, and they halted almost opposite our 
windows, where we could hear the voices. No 
loud " Halt, who comes there ! " rang out on the 
air, for the sentinel was enjoined to silence. Be- 



MARAUDERS AT NIGHT. 



509 



ing frightened, I called to Eliza. To Diana and to 
me she was worth a corporal's guard, and could not 
be equaled as a defender, solacer and general mana- 
ger of our dangerous situations — indeed, of all our 
affairs. Eliza ran up-stairs in response to my cry, 
and we watched with terror what went on. It 
soon was discovered to be a mutiny. The men 
growled and swore, and we could see by their 
threatening movements that they were in a state 
of exasperation. They demanded the command- 
ing officer, and as he did not appear, they clenched 
their fists, and looked at the house as if they 
would tear it down, or at least break in the doors. 
It seemed a desperate situation to us, for the 
quarters were double, and our gallery had no 
division from the neighbors. If doors and windows 
were to be demolished, there would be little hope 
for ours. I knew of no way by which we could 
ask help, as most of the soldiers were colored, and 
we felt sure that the plan, whatever it was, must 
include them all. » 

At last Eliza realized how terrified I was, and 
gave up the absorbing watch she was keeping, for 
her whole soul was in the wrongs, real or fancied, 
of her race. Too often had she comforted me in 
my fears to forget me now, and an explanation, 
was given of this alarming outbreak. 

The men had for some time been demanding 



« • 



5IO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the entire ration, and were especially clamorous 
for all the sugar that was issued. Very naturally,, 
the captain had withheld the supernumerary sup- 
plies, in order to make company savings for the 
purpose of buying vegetables. A mutiny over 
sugar may seem a small affair, but it assumes 
threatening proportions when a mob of menacing, 
furious men tramp up and down in front of one's 
house, and there is no safe place of refuge, nor 
any one to whom appeal can be made. Eliza 
kept up a continuous com.forting and reassuring, 
but when I reminded her that our door had no 
locks, or, rather, no keys, for it was not the cus- 
tom to lock army quarters, she said, " La, Miss 
Libbie, they won't tech you ; you dun wrote too 
many letters for 'em, and they'se got too many 
good vittels in your kitchen ever to 'sturb 
you." Strong excitement is held to be the 
means of bringing out the truth, and here were 
the facts revealed that they had been bountifully 
fed at our expense. I had forgotten how much 
ink I had used in trying to put down their very 
w^ords in love-letters, or family epistles to the 
Southern plantation. The infuriated men had to 
quiet down, for no response came from the com- 
manding officer. They found out, I suppose from 
the investigations of one acting as spy, and going 
to the rear of the quarters, that he had disap- 



A TEMPORARY CALM. 



511 



peared. To our intense relief, they straggled off 
until their growling and muttering was lost in the 
barracks, where they fortunately went to bed. 
No steps were taken to punish them, and at any 
imaginary wrong, they might feel, from the suc- 
cess of this first attempt at insurrection, that it 
was safe to repeat the experiment. We women 
had little expectation but that the summer would 
be one of carousal and open rebellion against mili- 
tary rule. The commanding officer, though very 
retiring, was so courteous and kindly to all the 
women left in the garrison, that it was difficult to 
be angry with him for his failure to control the 
troops. Indeed, his was a hard position to fill, 
with a lot of undisciplined, ignorant, ungoverned 
creatures, who had never been curbed, except by 
the punishment of plantation life. 

Meanwhile my letters, on which I wrote every 
day, even if there was no opportunity to send 
them, made mention of our frights and uncertain- 
ties. Each mail carried out letters from the 
women to the expedition, narrating their fears. 
We had not the slightest idea that there was a 
remedy. I looked upon the summer as the price I 
was to pay for the privilege of being so far on the 
frontier, so much nearer the expedition than the 
families of officers who had gone East. With all 
my tremors and misgivings, I had no idea of re- 



5 I 2 TENTIXG ON THE PLAINS. 

treating" to safe surroundings, as I should then 
lose my hope of eventually going out to the 
regiment. It took a long time for our letters to 
reach the expedition, and a correspondingly long 
time for replies ; but the descriptions of the night 
of the mutiny brought the officers together in 
council, and the best disciplinarian of our regiment 
was immediately despatched to our relief. I knew 
but little of General Gibbs at that time ; my hus- 
band had served with him during the war, and 
valued his soldierly ability and sincere friendship. 
He had been terribly wounded in the Indian wars 
before the Civil War, and was really unfit for hard 
service, but too soldierly to be willing to remain 
at the rear. In a week after his arrival at our 
post, there was a marked difference in the state of 
affairs. Out of the seemingly hopeless material, 
General Gibbs made soldiers who were used as 
guards over Government property through the 
worst of the Indian country, and whose courage 
was put to the test by frequent attacks, where 
they had to defend themselves as well as the sup- 
plies. The opinion of soldier and citizen alike 
underwent a change, regarding negroes as soldiers, 
on certain duty to which they were fitted. A 
ranchman, after praising their fighting, before the 
season was ended said, " And plague on my cats 
if they don't like it." 



UNCERTAIN TERRA FIRMA. 



513 



We soon found that we had reached a country 
where the weather could show more remarkable 
and sudden phases in a given time than any por- 
tion of the United States. The cultivation of the 
ground, planting of trees, and such causes, have 
materially modified some of the extraordinary 
exhibitions that we witnessed when Kansas was 
supposed to be the great American desert. With 
all the surprises that the elements furnished, there 
was one that we would gladly have been spared. 
One quiet day I heard a great rumbling in the 

~ direction of the plateau where we had ridden so 
much, as if many prairie-schooners, heavily laden, 
were being spirited away by the stampede ot 
mules. Next, our house began to rock, the bell to 
ring, and the pictures to vibrate on the wall. The 
mystery was solved when we ran to the gallery, 
and found the garrison rushing out of barracks 
and quarters. Women and children ran to the 
parade-ground, all hatless, some half-dressed. 
Everybody stared at every one else, turned pale, 
and gasped with fright. It was an earthquake, 
sufficiently serious to shake our stone quarters and 
overturn the lighter articles, while farther down 
the guUey the great stove at the sutler's store was 
tumbled over and the side of the building broken 

^ in by the shock. There was a deep fissure in the 
side of the bank, and the waters of the Big Blue 



CI4 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

were so agitated that the bed of the river twelve 
feet deep was plainly visible. 

The usual session of the " Did-you-evers " took 
place, and resolutions were drawn up — not com- 
mitted to paper, however — giving the opinion of 
women on Kansas as a place of residence. We 
had gone through prairie-fire, pestilence, mutiny, 
a river freshet, and finally, an earthquake: enough 
exciting events to have been scattered through a 
life-time were crowded into a few weeks. Yet in 
these conclaves, when we sought sympathy and 
courage from one another, there was never a sug- 
gestion of returning to a well-regulated climate. 



CHAPTER XVL 

EXTRACTS FROM GENERAL CUSTEr's LETTERS THE 

MARCH FROM FORT RILEY TO FORT HARKER 

DOGS AND HORSES ON THEIR FIRST WESTERN 
CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCES IN MESSING IN A COUN- 
TRY VOID OF SUPPLIES CHASING JACK-RABBITS. 



I 



HAVE made selections from General Custer's 
letters, which will give something of an idea 
of what the daily life on the march really was. 
Of the many long letters that came to me, in spite 
of the hundred drawbacks that attended a West- 
ern mail, I have only attempted to cull those por- 
tions pertaining to the chase, the march, and the 
camp life after the tents were pitched for the night. 
General Custer, knowing that his official reports 
would give the military side, wrote comparatively 
little in his home letters on that subject. 

"Chapman's Creek, March 27, 1867. 
"We left the bridge at Fort Riley at 2 : 20, I 
having to wait for my led horses. We passed 
through Junction City without difficulty, the dogs 
behaving admirably. We arrived here at 5 : 20, 
our wagons reaching camp a few moments after- 
ward. I wish you could have seen the three of 



5 1 6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

US eating our dinner of ham, chicken, pickles and 
coffee. We all agreed that we had never tasted 
more delicious ham — and such biscuit ! I know 
you would have been glad to see me eat. One of 
our officers says he never saw such an amount of 
mess stuff as you have put up for me. We have 
a splendid camp, and have found very nice roads 
nearly all the way. We are in our tent, and en- 
joying a pleasant fire from our Sibley stove. Four 
of the dogs, fatigued by the first day's march, are 
snoring round the fire ; they had to begin their 
campaigning by swimming the creek. The dogs 
do splendidly. The old hound Rover took his 
place alongside the table at dinner, as naturally 
as if he had been accustomed to it all his life." 



"Abilene Creek, March 28, 1867. 
"Your letter by Sergeant Dalton came about 
5 o'clock this afternoon. I need not say how 
glad I was when I saw him coming toward me, 
as I instinctively read " Letter from somebody " on 
his countenance. We left our camp at Chapman's 
at 8:30 this morning ; the artillery and infantry 
left earlier. We passed the infantry about five 
miles out. Wasn't I glad I was not a doughboy,^ 
as I saw the poor fellows trudging along under 
their heavy burdens, while the gay, frolicking 
cavalry-man rode by, carelessly smoking his pipe, 
and casting a look of pity upon his more unfort- 
unate comrades of the infantry. As usual, I 
placed my tent up-stream, beyond all the others. 
We have a very pleasant camp along the west 



* A " doughboy " is a small, round doughnut served to sailors on 
shipboard, generally with hash. Early in the Civil War the term 
was applied to the large globular brass buttons of the infantry 
uniform, from which it passed, by a natural transition, to the infan- 
trymen themselves. 



NIGHT SCENE IN THE TENT 



517 



bank of the creek ; good water, good ground, and 
sufficient wood to make us very comfortable. 
Two of us came in advance with several orderlies. 
I rode Custis Lee. As soon as I fixed upon our head- 
quarters, I unsaddled Lee and turned him loose 
to graze. I passed the time in carrying drift and 
dry wood for our camp and tent fire, as we knew 
wood would be in high demand when the troops 
reached the ground. We collected an abundant 
supply. Custis Lee, every few moments, as if to 
assist in the digestion of the prairie grass he was 
eating, would vary the monotony by lying down 
and taking a fresh though not hot roll. Finally 
he got too near the high bank, or declivity, which 
descends to the edge of the creek, and rolled over 
the crest, sliding down to the foot, a distance of 
several yards ; but doing himself no injury what- 
ever, as he found his way back and went to grazing 
immediately. 

" I wish you could look into my tent at this 
moment. One of the officers has just taken his 
second apple and bid us good-night. My tent- 
mate has wound his watch, and is carefully piling 
up his garments near the head of his bed, prepara- 
tory to retiring. I am seated at the camp-desk, 
writing by candle-light. The cook's tent is but a 
few steps in the rear of mine. It contains an 
Irishman, a Dutchman and an Englishman, all 
feeling good and trymg to talk at the same 
time. As I can hear every word they say, 
it is sometimes laughable. All the camp 
are asleep, and I am alone — no, not alone, for, 
casting your eyes to the side of the tent, 
you behold three sleepers, weary and travel- 
worn, as their snoring and heavy breathing be- 
token. They are stretched calmly upon the lowly 
couch of your humble correspondent. Near them, 



5 1 8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and on the tent fly used to wrap my bedding, are 
two other sleepers, evidently overcome by fatigue. 
Their appearance is more youthful, though none 
the less striking, than that of the ones first de- 
scribed. The names of the latter are Rover, 
Sharp and Lu. Rover, being the patriarch of 
the group, of course selects his position near the 
pillow ; Lu, being somewhat diffident, accepts a 
place nearer the foot ; while Sharp, to show him- 
self worthy of his name, has crowded in between 
the two, knowing it to be the warmest spot he 
could find. Rattler and Fanny, being young and 
unassuiTiing, have graciously accepted a more 
humble abiding-place on the folded tent-fly, near 
the head of the bed. I have no doubt, however, 
that they Vere induced to adopt this course, not so 
much from modesty as owing to the fact that 
nearly all the available space in the bed was taken 
by their elders. I do not think they have stirred for 
the last four hours. This morning I was taking a 
nap. Rover, Lu and Sharp being alongside of 
me on the narrow bed. Rattler and Fanny near 

me, all of us asleep, when General S called. 

He laughed heartily at the sight ; but I assure 
you they are great company to me, and are as 
completely domiciled in the tent, as if " to the 
manner born." Our dinner to-day was very good 
indeed ; but I could tell that Eliza had not been 
within several miles of my cook-fire, leastwise the 
coffee did not show it. The cook says he put in a 
great deal, but that the coffee was burnt too much, 
or not enough. But, really, he does remarkably 
well for a soldier. We have for dinner apple-frit- 
ters, tomatoes, fried eggs, broiled ham, cold bis- 
cuit and coffee. For breakfast we are to have 
fried onions, baked potatoes, fried eggs, mutton 
chops, apple-fritters, and some warm bread. This 



CAMP FARE. 5 1 9 

full bill of fare will not continue long ; for it is 
owing only to your abundant providing of sup- 
plies. 

"After dinner I told the cook I was very much 
pleased with everything except the coffee, which 
was not quite strong enough. I suppose Eliza 
will laugh at what I next said, because she knows 
how I insist upon her giving me a dish I like, 
over and over again, till I tire of it. I told the 
cook that, as I liked the apple-fritters so much, he 
might give them to me at every meal, until 
further orders. They are not exactly apple-frit- 
ters, but he slices the apples, dips them in batter, 
and fries them. Try it. He is very neat thus 
far ; the plates come upon the table perfectly 
clean. 

" There is a tavern (the Pioneer Hotel) about 
a mile from here. Three of the officers asked and 
received permission to be absent long enough to 
get something to eat. If you could see the tavern,, 
which does not compare in outward appearance 
with any log hut about Riley, you would infer 
that the bachelors' mess was running quite low, to 
render such a change necessary. 

" I think I am going to see you soon. Don't 
think of ' Fox river ;' it is not in our geography."* 



"Solomon's Creek, March 29, 1867. 9 p. m. 
" My tent-mate has retired, thus leaving me alone 
to write to you. My bed is occupied as described 
in my last-night's letter, with a slight change in 
names. We left camp this morning at 8, and 
reached our present one at 12. Solomon's 



* The allusion to Fox River has the same significance as that old 
saying, which General Custer frequently quoted, " Never cross a 
bridge till you come to it." 



520 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



Creek at this point is twelve feet deep, and re- 
quired a pontoon bridge, the laying of which 
delayed us a half-hour or more. The troops had 
all crossed safely, and part of the wagon-train, 
when the ice from above broke loose and, float- 
ing down against the bridge, carried it away, 
sinking some of the boats of the pontoon and 
sweeping others irrevocably down-stream, thus 

verifying General S 's prediction, and enabling 

him to say " I told you so" — that the boats would 
be carried back to St Louis. We have enough 
left, however, to answer all purposes. 

"Just as we were moving out of our camp this 
morning, we started a jack-rabbit. Sharp, Rover 
and the pups saw it. Lu did not, and away we 
went, I on Phil Sheridan. Sharp gained on and 
almost caught it ; but with doubling and running 
up-hill the advantage was in jack's favor. We 
chased it nearly a mile, but did not catch it. Old 
Rover, with the stick-to-it-iveness of a fox-hound 
when once on a trail, w^as in for making a day's 
work of it if necessary, but I had to call him off 
and rejoin the column. 

" Our mess is doing very well. The apple 
fritters were continued in our next, as requested ; 
also fried onions, and I ate one raw. ' Make hay 
while the sun shines,' is my motto about onions. 
I forgot in my last to say that I expected to hear 
from Eliza that ' she knew how to make fritters 
that way ; they made 'em so in Virginny," etc., but 
tell her I do not believe it. 

" The bachelors fare badly as regards messing. 
One of the officers dropped in about dinner-time 
to see Captain Hamilton and Lieutenant Hale. 
They were cooking their own dinners, which con- 
sisted of nothing but tomatoes in a can in which 
the cooking was going on. I do not know whether 



ON THE MARCH. 5 2 I 

Captain Hamilton's distinguished grandfather, 
Alexander Hamilton, was ever reduced to the 
hardship of partaking of a one - course dmner 
cooked m a can, but I am sure he could not have 
endured it more uncomplainingly. 

" Every officer has spoken to-day of havmg 
nearly frozen last night. Several of them tell of be- 
ing awakened by the cold at i o'clock, and of not 
having slept after that ; but I was comfortable 
and slept reasonably well." 

"Saline, March 30, 1867. 

" We rose at 5 o'clock this morning, marched at 
6 45 and reached camp about i p. m. The roads 
were worse than usual to-day ; but we expected 
this, as we were crossing over what is called "Ten- 
mile bottom," a very low and wet strip of land. 
The dogs are not the slightest trouble, followmg 
me through trains, troops and everywhere, and 
the moment I get off my horse are all around me. 
They are great company for me." 

"I turn both Custis Lee and the mare loose 
on the prairie as soon as we go into camp, and 
they do not attempt to leave. I found a horse- 
shoe to-day, which, according to our old supersti- 
tion, means good luck. I tied it to my saddle for 
that reason. 

" I have written every night, and hope you re- 
ceive my letters. I will give this to the stage- 
driver, or mail it in Saline in the morning. 
Remember me to Mrs. Gibbs, and tell her that 
if I come across any nice dogs out here I will ex- 
press them to her if she desires it."^' 



* Mrs Gibbs was not especially fond of dogs, and while we were 
her neighbors our numerous family of dogs continually annoyed 
her, though she never complained. 



522 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



"Our dinner to-day — which, by the way, was 
most excellent — was prepared over a fire made of 
dry weeds, stalks, etc. I am very well. You 
know I always feel in the best of health and spirits 
when on the march. There is something about a 
horse, as you know, that gives to his rider a feel- 
ing of independence, of freedom, and lightness of 
heart. This, added to the expansion and depth 
of soul inspired by contemplating these vast and 
apparently boundless prairies, seems to give me 
new life and direct my mind into fresh but most 
pleasant reveries. There is something grand, 
mingled with awe, in the view of this wild and 
uncultivated region. But to my enjoyment of 
the march and the changing scenery, there is a 
most serious drawback. I know how you would 
enjoy the novelty of this first experience of life on 
the Plains. My hope in the future is strong and 
unfaltering. I feel confident you will soon be 
with me, a partaker of my pleasures and discom- 
forts. 

" Often, so very often, when meditating on my 
past eventful life, I think of the many reasons why 
I, above my fellow-men, should be thankful to 
that wise and good Being who has borne me 
through so many scenes of danger unharmed, and 
through whose beneficence I have been a recipient 
of honors and pleasures seldom heaped so bounti- 
fully on one so young and unassisted by family, 
wealth or political influence. An eternity spent 
in gratitude to the great Giver of all things will 
not cancel the deep debt I feel. 

" Direct your letters to Fort Larned. I hope 
soon to write to you, telling you to pack up 
and be ready to move upon twenty-four hours' 



notice." 



m^ fci \t : 







523 



524 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



"Plum Creek, Kansas, April 3, 1867. 

"To-day the weather has been quite cold, more 
so than on any previous day of our march. Nearly 
all the officers, except me, have been uncomfort- 
able from the cold. General Gibbs was nearly 
numb while marching beside me to-day, and when 
he found I was perfectly comfortable, exclaimed, 
* Well, you a7'e a warm-blooded cuss.' I have not 
been to any one's tent since we started, but all the 
officers have dined with me. I drill every day 
while on the march, and the companies are improv- 
ing rapidly. Our march was over comparatively 
good ground to-day, but at our camp-ground to- 
morrow we shall find no wood, I am told, so Stork 
is chopping some outside now, to carry along in 
our wagon. One armful keeps our tent warm all 

the evening. Colonel B made some biscuit, 

and sent them in to me at dinner. They were as 
good as you will fi^nd on anybody's table except 
Eliza's. 

" I find my horse, Phil Sheridan, incomparable 
in a chase ; he enters into the spirit of the sport 
as much as his rider, and follows the dogs almost 
unguided." 

" Cow Creek, April 4. 
"A march of twelve miles brought us to our 
present camp on a beautiful, clear stream bearing 
the unromantic name of Cow Creek. Little wood 
is to be found, and that little is green. We are 
upon an old Indian camp, the evidences of which 
still remain. They have been here within the past 
few weeks. We can see where their lodges stood — 
some of the poles still remaining — and also where 
they have been dressing buffalo-hides. The scrap- 
ings and the remains of one buffalo lie within fif- 
teen yards of my tent. On the march to-day we 



/ 



f ^ 






TENTING ON THE PLAINS 



OR 



General Custer in Kansas and Texas. 



PRAIRIE-DOG VILLAGE. 525 

passed the carcasses of a number of buffalo which 
have been killed recently, and as we are now in 
their country we expe;ct to see some to-morrow. 

" To-day we marched through a prairie-dog- 
village. I wish you could see Lu and the other 
dogs among them. They are quite saucy, standing 
up on their little mounds and barking at us until 
we arrive within a stone's-throw of them, when 
they pop out of sight. Lu, seeing and hearing 
them, would start to run, thinking to catch them. 
They would continue to bark, and shake their tails 
almost in her face, until just before she reached 
them., when out of sight they would go, as if by 
magic, completely dumbfounding the domestic 
dogs. 

"This life is new to most of us ; but there are 
some officers with the command who have seen 
some frontier duty. One was at one time the 
bearer of despatches, and rode from Fort Larned 
to Riley, 151 miles in thirty-three hours, without 
change of horses." 

"Fort Larned, April 8, 1867. 
" I have not written you for the past two days, 
for the reason that no mail was to be sent back ; 
but one leaves to-n'ght, and I cannot allow the 
opportunity to go by unimproved, I am so disap- 
pointed when I cannot send you a few lines every 
day. One of the officers constantly laughs at me 
for writing you so many letters, and predicts that 
after I have been married a few years, I will 
neither write so often nor such long letters. One 
of our officers told him I had been a benedict 
some years, and there was as yet no let-up in the 
writing. . . We expect to remain at this post 
several days, and then move to Fort Dodge, 
about forty-five miles distant. 



526 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

" On the loth a grand council is to take place 
at this point, between General Hancock and the 
principal chiefs of the Cheyennes, Sioux, Kiowas, 
and Arrapahoes. These tribes are encamped a 
few miles from here in large numbers. The ob- 
ject of our march to Dodge is to meet two or 
three tribes that are congregated there. All this 
will consume ten or fifteen days, so that about 
the loth or 15th of May the whole command will 
be at Fort Hays and prepare for its westward 
march. And now comes my budget of news, 
which is authentic and of a late date. It is in the 
highest degree cheering and encouraging, Mrs. 
and others to the contrary notwithstanding.* 

" In the first place, General Gibbs's eyes have 
troubled him so much, the last few days, that I 
do not consider it prudent for him to continue on 
the march, although the General, like the true 
soldier he is, persists in saying he is sufficiently 
well to do so. I reported his case to General 
Hancock and General Smith, both of whom sug- 
gested his remaining at Larned until our return ; 
but it was finally decided that he go back to Riley 
to command that post temporarily, as things 
seemed to be going at loose ends there. If he 
does come there, ' order will reign in Warsaw.' 
I am sorry, on my account, as I shall regret the 
loss of his assistance and society ; but my loss 
will be your gain. He will render you any assist- 
ance in his power, in preparing for a move, which 
is nearer at hand than you may suppose. He 
will be a real loss from our command, as, you 
know, he is so witty and entertaining he whiles 
away many a tedious hour. This evening my 



* These were the women in our garrison who threw cold water 
on my hopes of joining my husband in the field. 



AN EL DORADO. 



527 



tent has been full of officers, and he has been 
giving a most laughable description of his cross- 
ing Dry Creek ! 

" Now for my second despatch from the 
budget. The latest news from ' Fox River ' is, 
that the river has dried up, and travelers can go 
over in safety and comfort. I have never doubted 
that ' Destiny,' which to me is but another name 
for Providence, would in the future, as in the past, 
arrange all happily and satisfactorily. For this 
reason, I never entertained an anxious thought 
regarding our future station or post, believing 
that in due time all would be known. Accord- 
ingly, I addressed a note to General Hancock, 
saying that, without desiring to know anything of 
his future plans, I would like to be informed as 
much as he deemed proper regarding the probabil- 
ity of officers of the Seventh Cavalry, myself in 
particular, being enabled to have our families 
with us the coming summer, and how soon we 
might expect to do this. I inquired nothing 
more. You will see by his reply, enclosed, that 
he not only answered my inquiries fully and satis- 
factorily but added a great deal of other highly 
important (to us) and equally pleasant news. If 
you have not read his letter, I might inform you 
that he is going to assign me to the command of 
Fort Garland. I shall have four companies at 
first, and more later. Kit Carson, a lieutenant- 
colonel, will probably be under my command. 
One of the officers with the expedition has been 
at Garland, and gives a glowing description of it 
as having good quarters, splendid country sur- 
rounding, fine climate, abundance of game, two 
kinds of bear, black -tailed deer, antelope and 
smaller game, while there is splendid trout-fishing 
near the post. From everything I hear, Fort 



528 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Garland is the post of all others in the Western 
country that would suit me, and that I would have 
chosen. It is a very important post for that lo- 
cality, and I shall have control of the Ute Indians, 
a large friendly tribe.* It may be that I have 
the sanguine temperament which looks upon the 
bright side of everything in too great a degree ; 
but I feel as if our affairs, everything considered, 
could not be improved very much, even had we 
been consulted. We both desire to see the West- 
ern country. We shall enjoy it now more than 
ever, as we shall see it under most favorable 
circumstances, and we shall appreciate a return to 
the East only the more for having indulged in 
wild Western life with all its pleasures and excite- 
ments. You have been dreading an unsettled 
future, and perhaps separation ; but General 
Hancock said to me to-day, ' After you reach 
your post, I sha'n't change you unless you desire 
it ; I will give you a chance to become settled.' 

"■ Now as to my plans, prospects and intentions, 
subject to the revision of Providence and the 
military authorities : I hope that we may con- 
clude our present operations by the 15th of May, 
and that immediately thereafter I may hasten to 
you, and we can arrange for our Western tour. 
The Indian agents here say the Indians desire 
peace ; if so, they can be accommodated. I am 
certain I never felt more peaceful in my life. 
Particularly do I desire peace, when I know that 
war means separation. 

" Tell Eliza that Stork has broken the blue mug 
and the mustard-glass, lost four forks, and broken 
the carving-knife, and that I want her to pack her 



* Fort Garland was in the mountainous country of Colorado, 
and the Indian difficulties increased so greatly that General Custer 
was never sent to that post. 



THE TUMBLE OF A CAVALKY-MAN. 



529 



valise and report without delay, to be assigned to 
the command of the Dutchman and Englishman 
and the rest of the strikers. "^^ I wouldn't give 
Eliza for all the soldier cooks I ever saw. When 
she is here, I never have any trouble ; instead of 
losing mess furniture on a march, I generally have 
more at its close than at the beginning. One of 
our officers dined with me to-day, and complained 
that their mess was an * awfully poor lay-out.' 
One after another comes to my tent now to ask 
to arrange to be assigned to those companies that 
are to go with me to Fort Garland. Do not tell 
Mrs. Gibbs about the General's going to Riley, as 
something might happen to prevent it, and she 
would be disappointed. 

"This evening, while Stork was setting the 
table, General Gibbs and I desired to write at 
the desk at the same time. I said, ' It's a pretty 
thing that a man cannot write to his wife with- 
out being disturbed,' and the General replied, 
' Any man who writes to his wife once a day 
deserves to be disturbed.' 

" As usual, we had our daily sport with the 
dogs, during which I met with a very unusual in- 
cident. The hounds started a jack-rabbit, and I 
galloped after them on Phil. The saddle, not be- 
ing girthed tight enough, turned, and of course 
carried me with it. I broke my stirrup in trying 
to regain my position, but could not accomplish 
it, and the next moment found myself at full 
length on the prairie, fortunately without scratch 
or bruise. Phil's legs were scratched consider- 
ably by the saddle, but no serious injury inflicted. 
That ended my first chase. About five miles 
farther on, the dogs started another immense rab- 



* " Striker " was a name for a soldier servant. 



530 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

bit, and away they went over the level prairie, in 
full view of the entire command. The chase con- 
tinued for more than a mile, a dozen dogs joining 
in the pursuit ; Sharp in advance, followed closely 
by Lu and three or four strange dogs, then Rover 
and the pups. The race was well contested on 
both sides. After running three-quarters of a 
mile. Sharp and Lu began gaining on the hare, 
until the former was apparently close enough to 
touch it, when the rabbit suddenly sprang to 
one side, and Sharp, unable to check himself, ran 
several yards beyond. In this way the rabbit 
gained considerably, and soon dogs and game 
were both lost to view beyond a roll in the prairie. 
They have all returned to camp but Fanny, and 
she was seen looking for the wagon-train, so I hope 
I shall not lose her. 

"I saw many strange and interesting sights to- 
day. Here and there was a buffalo skeleton, then 
a prairie-dog village with its busy inmates, and 
once I saw an owl slowly leaving the entrance of 
a prairie-dog's home, thereby confirming the state- 
ment I have often read in natural history, that in 
the home of a prairie-dog may be found an owl, 
a rattle-snake and the prairie-dog occupying the 
same apartment. To-day, also, I saw for the first 
time that peculiar natural phenomenon called 
* mirage.' It presents the appearance of a b.eau- 
tiful lake at a distance of five or ten miles. It is 
generally seen near trees, and the appearance of 
the lake is so perfect that the shadow or reflection 
of the trees in the water can be plainly seen ; but 
go to the supposed lake, and the ground is per- 
fectly dry, with nothing to account for the strange 
appearance." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO GENERAL CUSTER 

CROSSING FOX RIVER ACCOUNT OF THE UNDISCI- 
PLINED TROOPS war's alarms MOURNING FOR 

CUSTIS LEE. 

TT is with extreme hesitation that I insert here 
extracts from letters that are httle more than 
the unrestrained outpourings of a very heavy 
heart. From the hundreds I have destroyed, some 
sentences have been culled, which, though con- 
taining trifling detail and vehement expressions, 
and, like a school-girl's letter, flying from one sub- 
ject to another, will show, more clearly than any 
description that could be written now, our life at 
that period. 

"Fort Riley, March, 1867. 
" I am quite light-hearted to-night, as I have 
two letters from you. Though you do say Fox 
River is not in our geography, it is with the 
greatest difficulty that I keep out of the Slough 
of Despond, which one passes in getting to that 
stream. I cannot help worrying and bothering, it 
frets me so to sit here and hear that General Han- 
cock does not intend to allow the Seventh Cavalry 
ladies to be with their husbands this summer. He 

531 



532 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



told the B 's so, and Mrs. Gibbs firmly believes 

it, but I keep saying to myself that you think I 
am to be with you. You are born under a lucky 
star, and I'll try to think I am really going to be 
with you soon. Many times a day I go over these 
reasonings. Diana goes riding with the infantry 
beau every day, but she was so accustomed to fast 
riding with our cavalry, she does not know how to 
treat a dough-boy. Her escort is lying by for re- 
pairs now. His knee is very lame, and he lives 
with a jar of cold cream in his hand. 

"You would not believe a garrison could go to 
rack and ruin so quickly. Affairs are decidedly at 
loose ends. The darkies do very well at guard- 
mounting, and all alone too. The soldiers of the 
Seventh that are left here scare the darkies fright- 
fully. Yesterday three of our Seventh prisoners 
were out policing under a darkey. They put a pistol 
to his head, made him drop his musket, tied his 
hands, took him over the river and tied him to a tree, 
then after dark they deserted. Was not that high- 
handed ? Eliza is afraid, and has moved her room 
up-stairs, next to us. I told the messenger that 
took my letters to-day to be sure and deliver them 
to you himself, and he said he would. Just think ! 
he is to ride sixty-five miles to-day, and on a mule ! 
It must be sister to Bet, our Texas guide's mule. 

" I have been to church, and was so afraid I 
should cry. I could not hear the sermon, but if I 
cry I am ill all next day. When I was trying my 
best to keep from boo-hooing, two darkies who 
sat behind me began to sing some of the service. 
One knew the tune, and shouted in regular camp- 
meeting style, but not one word of the hymn 
could he utter. If I had not been so forlorn, I 
v/ould have thought it too funny to refrain from 
laughing at. 



■ GARRISON DETAILS. 533 

" Eliza dressed up to-night and went to call on 
the colored ladies of the command — the laun- 
dresses. Miss Eliza Brown is boiling with rage 
now, because she heard one husband say, 'Fanny, 
light my pipe.' Eliza says managing men like 
that is too great drudgery to please her. Heaven 
knows this loneliness reduces me to such a state 
of mind that I'd light pipes and make the fire, 
gladly, if I got a chance to name for whom I 
wished to play striker. 

" I want you to consider what is really the 
thickness of the heads of our country's defenders ! 
A broken musket was found on the outskirts of 
the garrison, and it proved to have been divided 
in two by a blow over a darkey's head. The mus- 
ket is ruined, but as yet we have not heard of any 
suffering skull. The hours you give me when 
others are asleep, I know well how to prize. I am 
alone to-night again, but not alone, for I am re- 
reading the letters you sat up so late to write. 

. . . The wild geese have been screaming as 
they flew over our post, and I suppose the rain is 
about to descend in bucketfuls. Well, we are 
prepared, but I hope you out in camp will be 
spared. The darkies are going on as usual, slack 
and careless. If they guard our white prisoners, 
they say good-naturedly, *Oh, sit down, if you're 
tired. I'll watch if any one comes.' Eliza has 
some beaux, but is not over-gracious. One of 
them, speaking of our bull-dog Turk, said he had 
heard that he was ' a awful ferocious dog.' 
Eliza quickly assured him that it was true ; he 
would take hold of any one who came near him. 
She never mentioned that Turk's teeth are so 
blunted by constant biting at his rope or chain 
that he is not in the least dangerous. Diana's 
beau has begun to read Prescott's ' Philip the 



534 TEi^rmc ON" Tim PLAms. 

Second,' so I get some good out of his prolonged 
sessions, and it whiles away the tedious time. 

"I am so sorry about drinking. It looks 

as if he were glad to get his wife safely off in the 
States, as he did before he left, so that he could 
make a summer of it. If men only knew ' how 
pleasant, how divinely fair,' it makes the world 
to their wives when they refuse to drink, I do not 
believe they would be half so careless. 

" How I wish that you were here to enjoy this 
bright lire ! The wind is howling and screeching 
round the quarters, and it makes me wish so that 
you were safely housed. 

" I hear to-night that three commissioners have 
gone to Washington, from the Department of the 
Platte, to petition that no war against the Indians 
take place. An officer, a citizen and a Congress- 
man compose the commission. Oh ! I do hope 
they will be successful." 

" April 4, 1867. 
" It is blowing hard, and trying to snow. The 
wind makes such noises down chimney, and am 
so frightened ! I feel sure it is burglars, and I lie 
there so scared I cannot sleep. It isn't the thing 
to be frightened, is it ? But this is such a screechy 
place, I cannot help it, and forget all about the 
requirements of a soldier's wife. Your former 

enemy, , came upon me so suddenly to-day 

that I did not succeed in escaping him as hereto- 
fore. I didn't promise you that I wouldn't dodge 
him on every occasion ; I made a ' mental reser- 
vation,' you see. I could not slip away without 
his seeing me, and then I was obliged to remember 
your wishes and shake hands. You know you did 
not tell me that you did not want me to hide, 
so I have been very successful in accomplishing 



RUMORS OF INDIANS. 



535 



that heretofore. He hopes for further promotion. 
Anything', I say, that will take him out of the 
Seventh. You may beheve all he says about ex- 
pecting promotion, but I don't. I could hardly 
refrain from saying sharp things in reply. But 
you can rest easy ; I shook hands, held my tongue, 
and did the decorous, just as you would ask me 
to do if you were here. Still, when Diana ap- 
peared at the door, I could not help an implor- 
ing glance, which she interpreted at once and 
called loudly for me, and I escaped. A citizen 
has come into the post from Denver, and says the 
Indians are attacking the stage-stations. But I 
am determined not to be alarmed. It is sufficiently 
difficult for me to battle with the one trouble, this 
loneliness and separation (and, oh, it is so hard to 
stand it !) without believing in addition every 
rumor about Indians. 

"■ Tom says he does not have the charge of this 
house now, as the colored ordnance sergeant has 
assumed the entire responsibility. It is too funny 
to see him walking about, having the wood piled 
and the yard cleaned. So much for Eliza and her 
charms ] " 



"April 5, 1867. 
" I suppose the streams must have risen and 
delayed the mails ; for our river is up, and the 
bridge gone, with hourly expectation that the rail- 
road bridge will go. The operator here reports 
that a despatch from General Hancock has been 
sent from him saying that he had a fight with 
the Indians near Harker. I do not believe it, but 
I am so foolish I cannot help being uneasy. Oh, 
dear, what a way to live — one here and the other 
so far off ! Won't you put an end to it, and de- 
sert ? How I wish I had the six days with you 



536 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



that I spent going to St. Louis for Ristori ! What 
a noodle I was to leave you ! An account comes 
to us through the Washington Cki'oniclc, of a mas- 
sacre at Fort Buford, Dakota. The colonel in 
command is reported as having written all winter 
for re-inforcements, but said he would fight, if 
he was attacked, as long as he could hold out. 
And so he did, for eighty men held off three 
thousand Indians. When it was no longer pos- 
sible to make a further stand, the colonel shot 
his wife, and the command were finally all killed. 
Is it not horrible, and it makes me so sad, but I 
beg you will not think me utterly forlorn. There 
is a fate far harder; it is never to have had, as 
many have not, the hours that already belong to 
us and cannot be taken away. 

" You will laugh at my religion, I'm afraid, when 
I tell you I hurried out of church, so as not to be 
obliged to speak to your enemy ! But do not be 
worried ; I will do what you wish ; I will go and 
call on his wife, and do the polite. 

" The river is something terrific. The oldest in- 
habitant says it has never been so high. It is 
over the railroad track. 

" You should see this post ! It is, everyone says, 
the most thoroughly run-down and utterly uncared- 
for and shiftless place they ever saw. The one 
darkey bugler sounds every call on the board — at 
least, at the hour of every call the cavalry used to 
hear, the bugler toots something so absurd, and as 
much like the true call as a cow's low. Shots are 
fired constantly. You should have seen the parade- 
ground this afternoon ! It would have driven 
an officer given to order and discipline to the 
verge of distraction. The ' black-faced and shiney- 
eyed ' were drilling right on the grass of the 
parade-ground, which is just beginning to show 



ORDER IN WARSAW. 



537 



itself green. While the sergeant drilled one squad, 
another rolled on the ground, or ran around on all 
fours, like apes. Then an old cow has been pas- 
turing herself on the parade unmolested. Teams 
of luggage, dogs, horsemen, mulemen, cross and 
recross at will. Really, if I were not afraid, these 
things would be very funny. A lieutenant was 
passing the guard-house when a negro sentinel 
called out, ' Turn out the guard for the command- 
ing-officer ! ' He was full of amusement, but only 
said quietly, ' Never mind the guard,' and then 
hurried up to laugh with us about their so saluting 
a lieutenant. The sergeant called the darkies 
down from the upper porch of the barracks to 
reveille — ' No, sar, too cold down thar;' and they 
didn't come. We are glad General Gibbs is 
coming to restore order to Warsaw, as you express 
it. No one feels safe with the present state of 
affairs in the garrison. " 

"April i8, 1867. 

" General Gibbs has come, and we are delighted 
and relieved to have him here. He teases me 
about my numerous letters to you ; says you 
are all the time writing to me, and that you keep 
a letter of mine in your pocket constantly, and 
pull it out and read it whenever the least oppor- 
tunity offers. But I don't care if he does make 
fun of us ; I shall keep on writing daily. He has 
begun to make a change in the condition of the 
garrison already. After the darkey shot his com- 
rade, all their ammunition was taken from them. 
The colored troops no longer dry their clothes on 
the parade-ground. 

** Our dear Ginnie is so unhappy about her dead 
puppies ; Eliza declares she has been trying to 
bury herself to-day. She did dig two holes, and 



538 - TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tried to lay herself out flat in each one. Dog sor- 
rows are pretty hard, as well as human troubles. 
The setter puppies are doing well, and Turk looks 
so fine that people want to buy him. The Gibbs 
boys, Alfred and Blair, are the dearest, most capti- 
vating children. Don't forget the arrows for them. 

Mrs. Gibbs had a tin-type taken in Junction 
City, and the boys posed themselves. What do you 
think ! Each boy had placed one hand on the 
mother's shoulder. We said they were her brevets. 
'1 here could be no shoulder-straps more lovely 
than those dimpled hands. Blair lisps and asks, 
'Mother, what is a brevet; is it a make-believe 
soldier ?' and the manner in which they are admin- 
istered to men who never smelled powder, makes 
me feel that it is a good definition sometimes. 

" In your two last letters you caution me not to 
feel any anxiety about the news of your pursuit of 
the Indians ; but my nature would be changed 
indeed if I did not feel worried. You know what 
I have at stake, and I cannot control my feelings. 
What a miserable, treacherous set the Indians 
are ! All that is left me is to implore the kind 
Father to hold you in the hollow of His hand, as 
He has done in times past. I am glad you wrote 
me about your intended pursuit of the Indians, 
for you know I shall have to hear all sorts of gar- 
bled reports, which alarm me far more than the 
plain statement you make in your letter. I am 
going at myself with whip and spur, and shall 
take up such work as will keep me from being 
utterly forlorn. But, oh, what thoughts get 
sewed into my work !" 

"April 20, 1867. 
" My letters from you do not come regularly — 
two or three at a time, and days intervening with- 



A GLOOMY PREDICTION'. 539 

out any. Oh ! what a shattering of hopes each 
day, when one is subjected to the uncertainty of a 
mail by stage. 

" Our Seventh Cavalry band is going to be 
splendid, under General Gibbs's organization. It 
seems good to hear the clank of sabres, as the 
men passed. Almost the only cavalrymen we 
see are in the hospital, which we visit. We are 
trying to make out a list of music for the band. 
The best notes I hear now are those of a 
little bird that sits on a branch of a tree on the 
parade-ground, and sings as if his throat would 
burst, even at his go-to-sleep song. But there is 
a great ache that keeps up since the receipt of the 
news of your pursuit of the Indians. Just think 
how hard it is for me, when an old officer who 
was passing through here and called, told me he 
thought, now you had started in pursuit, you 
were not likely to be in till October ! His opinion is 
based on his forty years' experience in the West. 
He is a lovely old man, even if he does talk so 
discouragingly, and I intend to ask him to dine 
before he goes — that is, if I get good news from 
you. 

" We do get such glimpses of brightness from 
the band-practice, and Diana has kept one beau 
at the East in a sufficiently deluded state to send 
her a box of candy by mail. Nothing brightens 
me up long, nowadays, I feel so old, and such an 
apathy comes over me for the events of daily life, 
now that I am so anxious. 

" Tom thinks himself abused, because all day 
long I keep asking him for the time — the day 
seems so long. At night I write to you, and 
Diana is so taken up with her infantry man that 
time does not drag in the least. Tom is forgot- 
ten, and grumbles audibly. He pretends to 



540 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



be afraid to come down-stairs at night, since 
Diana has loaded her pistol to protect us. He 
fears we will not discriminate between a negro 
and a brother! " 



"April 22, 1867. 

" I confess to being very unhappy. My hopes 
and fears agitate me so, for fear of the sudden de- 
camping of those treacherous rascals will keep you 
chasing them, and going farther and farther from 
me, leaving the summer to drag on without you ! 
I am tormented with anxieties that I cannot over- 
come. I look out so startled, if a mounted man 
passes our house, fearing he is the bearer of bad 
tidings. It exasperates me and fills me with sus- 
pense, to hear people going up and down the steps 
of the commanding officer's house next door, for 
I constantly think it is an orderly with a letter. 

" I am put out with the quartermaster from De- 
partment Headquarters. I asked him about the 
application that you made to buy an ambulance. 
' Oh, yes,' he said, ' it had come, but was waiting 
for the commanding officer to sign it.' The delay 
is vexatious, for it is so necessary to have a wagon 
ready in case I can get a chance to go to 
you. He promised to ' look it up,' How little he 
cares, in his comfortable, safe quarters at Leaven- 
worth, whether an anxious wife gets a wagon tc 
go to her husband ! I am disappointed about not 
getting the mail. Your letters are the life of my 
day. The river is so high that nothing can cross ; 
consequently, as you may surmise, Fox River has 
risen also. I found a horse-shoe in our walk to- 
day, and I am trying to remember that you con- 
sider it a harbinger of good times. My birth- 
day was not the gay, happy affair that it is 
when you are here. Diana gave me a book of 



A PROBLEMATIC WORD. 



54^ 



poetry, which one of her citizen beaux had given 
to her — someone she's tired of. But I enjoy the 
book, all the same. 

"I have been answering two of Eliza's letters 
to-night, to her brunette beaux. 

"This is such a country to live in. At Whisky 
Point, near here, a man shot his wife. He then 
called in the neighbors, threatened to kill them if 
they advanced, disposed of his property, and shot 
himself. A few days afterward a man who kept 
the mess-house, near the stables, went over to 
Whisky Point and cut his throat from ear to ear. 

" Since I began my doleful epistle, three great 
gorgeous letters have come from you, and it 
makes me feel good all over." 



"April 23, 1867. 

"This morning Eliza came before I was up and 

said, ' Miss Libbie, here's a letter ! " I was up in 

a twinkling, but so provoked to find it was not 

from you that I crept into bed again. Finally, 

I arose and found it was from Colonel W , 

whom, it seems, you asked to write me. The 
writing was particularly hieroglyphic, and I was 
enraged at such carelessness. One word, which I 
wished to know of all others, I cannot make out, 
neither can the General, the adjutant, Tom, or 
Diana. It says, 'Your husband reports the 

Indians 3 if uandeved, and will return in two 

days, when we will then go on to Fort Dodge.' 
Was there ever anything so exasperating ? The 
very word I am all anxiety to know, whether the 
Indians have surrendered or if they have fled be- 
yond recall, or if it means war all summer. Mine 
is the only letter giving any news, and here we 
are unable to make it out. It was very good of 
him to write, but how can I wait to know what 



542 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



his letter really means ? While I am writ- 
ing, Tom comes in with a startling account 
of the Indians having drawn off all our troops 
by a feint, a small number of their own showing 
themselves, while the main body came in behind 
and captured Fort Larned. Oh, dear ! if these 
hateful reports would not get circulated as they 
do, life would not be so hard. 

" We have heard rumors, also, of the burning of 
the stage-station beyond Fort Hays. But are there 
any stampeders like stage people and teamsters ? 
My mind is full of miserable conjectures, and I 
cannot help impatience and fretting at living in a 
country with no railroad or telegraph. 

"I have just heard, through a letter received in 
garrison, that you shot Custis Lee in a buffalo- 
hunt. 

" Do not be troubled for fear I shall be inconsol- 
able over my dear horse. You well know what a 
loss he is to me. I shall never become so attached 
to an animal again. It was so strange that a 
dumb brute could seem to be so in sympathy with 
me as he did. Can't you see him when you would 
say, ' Give Custis Lee the rein, Libbie,' and I would 
repeat the message to him, following up the 
slackening of the bridle with my hand on his 
beautiful glossy neck, to tell him by a loving pat 
that we were to do our best, how he shot off over 
the level road, enjoying the speed as much as we 
did ? To tell you the truth, he won me first when 
I found we shared our scares together. He did 
not bound to one side and leaving me anywhere 
in the air, as Phil does when he is frightened ; he 
is so selfish he has all his scare to himself, but 
Custis Lee stood quivering under me, trying to 
face danger for my sake just as faithfully as if 
he was a reasoning being, and knew well that he 



A DISCOA'SOLATE LOOKOUT. 



54: 



carried a bundle of quivers and tremors on his 
back, which tried to encourage him, though in a 
very unsteady voice. I do not hesitate to own to 
genuine grief for my dear old nag, but oh, when 
we are both in such an anxious, uncertain state of 
mind over the graver question of our separation, 
the danger of the campaign, grief over the horse 
is secondary ! 

" General Gibbs finds garrison duty so dull he 
would far rather be on the campaign, but he tries 
to enliven our evenings. He and the Madame 
have just been in, and he made me laugh in spite 
of the wretched uncertainty I am in, by describ- 
ing you as so enthusiastic about hunting before he 
left, that you raced out of your tent after a jack- 
rabbit in your nightgown ! 

" I am very unhappy ; I cannot help it. There 
are some people here who talk all on the dark 
side about the summer campaign. I would you 
were in the humble employment of Hutchins, the 
pound-master at home, and I the happy Mrs. 
Hutchins, rather than living in this inhuman, un- 
natural, heart-rending manner ! " 



"April 26, 1867. 
" Since I received your letter this week, saying 
you would set out after the Indians, there has been 
nothing but misery; and a perfect whirlwind of 
anxiety possesses me. The atmosphere of the 
post is gloomy in the extreme. All sorts of 
rumors come to us. Every day we have fresh ac- 
counts of troubles that have actually occurred 
with the Indians, or descriptions of those that are 
anticipated. I try not to believe them, but still I 
have no peace of mind. I was so agitated about 
you, that even the excitement of the earthquake 
left scarcely any effect on my mind. Our separa- 



544 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



tions grow more hopeless to me. Even when I 
was in Washington, with no friends about me, it 
was not so hard as the anxiety now is. Colonel 
B has arrived from Dodge, and gives very de- 
pressing accounts of the Indians. He says every 
one, from Dodge here, is in daily terror of at- 
tack, and one of the stage stations is already 
abandoned. I am in terror to think you are to go 
off in pursuit. I did not think they would send 
lieutenant-colonels on scouts. 

*' Do you not think I can get out to you and meet 
you on your return ? You know how I thrive in a 
tent. The wind is frantic to-day ; it shrieks and 
moans about the house in the most desolate man- 
ner. I hate wind ! Now, remember, I want to be 
sent for as soon as possible. There seems to be 
not even the faintest prospect of going. There 
isn't an ambulance at the post, but nevertheless I 
am getting my gray gown ready for traveling. 
Can't you send one of your own wagons as far as 
the termination of the railroad for me, and I can 
manage the rest of the way ? The troops tempo- 
rarily here were brought out to muster this morn- 
ing, and we had a little of the pomp and circum- 
stance to vary the day. A number of Indians — 
Kaws, I believe — came to witness the perform- 
ance, and to beg, of course. I could scarcely 
contain myself ; I wanted to fly out and maul and 
throttle them. I know it must distress you to 
have Sifrau in such a fury, but I can't help it. 

"I know you are wondering why this letter is 
cut up so. Well, I began to try and cut out the 
tear-stains, for I know I ought not to send such 
doleful letters, but I had to give up the cutting as 
a bad job, for I would soon have had nothing at 
all to give the messenger." 



A LOST OPPORTUNITY. 



545 



''May I, 1867. 
" Lieutenant Cook has just arrived, and brings 
messages from you, and he is anxious to take me 
back ; but until I hear from you that it is best, I 
will not venture. This is our first warm day, and 
the soldiers are holy-stoning our porch, while Gen- 
eral Gibbs is staking the parade into walks, and 
planting grass-seed again, to cover up the destruc- 
tion the darkies made of the sod." 



"May 2. 
"Two long letters have come from you. Oh, 
how hard it is to know that, but for Diana, I could 
return with Lieutenant Cook. I will not let her 
know it, but I did mention that you hesitated 
about letting us return with Lieutenant Cook, 
because of the risk that she must necessarily run, 
and that her parents might blame you. She says 
she is not in the least afraid ; would like to live in 
a tent ; so please let us take her at her word. 
We are invited to stay over night at Harker when 
we go, and shall not mind the eighty miles to 
Hays, if once we get the transportation from 
there. When I think that the snail-like mail takes 
six days, and this letter must be so long going, it 
exasperates me. A messenger left hurriedly to- 
day. General Gibbs had no opportunity to send 
me word, and T missed my chance for a letter to 
you. The courier will ride night and day, to in- 
form General Hancock of the killing of six men 
by Indians up on Republican River." 



" May 4. 

Generals Sherman, Hancock and Smith meet 

here in conference to-morrow, and I hope out of it 

will come some favorable results for us. I send 

you your supplies and the box of cake by Lieuten- 



546 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ant C . So sorry I couldn't get your barrel of 

onions, but Junction City had none. Eliza's darkey 
beaux planted us a little garden, and I let them do 
it to please them, feeling sure in my heart, though, 
that I should have something better than gardens, 
by the time the seed came up, for I v/as certain I 
would be with you. But the seeds are coming up. 
I hate them !" 



" On the Cars — en route to Leavenworth. 
"May 7, 1867. 
" I hasten to write a few words to send back by 
the conductor, who will mail this at Saline, the 
termination of the railroad. General Hancock 
has been in the car to see me. He is in Mr. Shoe- 
maker's private car. I told him I was going to 
Leavenworth for supplies for our new post, Gar- 
land. He said you were off for a fifteen days' 
scout, but on your return you would come to Riley 
to take me back to Hays. I did not ask him, much 
as I wanted to do so, but when he said, ' Are you 
going to join your husband soon ? ' I said I would 
be glad to do so, if he had no objections. He 
said, ' None whatever !' Just think of that ! He 
praised you mightily, and that pleased me, as you 
may imagine. He spoke in praise of you as a 
husband, and commended your habits. I suppose 
he thought this would prepare me, and sweeten a 
bitter pill, for he continued, ' Custer will have to 
do the fighting and marching and scouting;' and 
added, * I do not know what we would do with- 
out Custer ; he is our reliance.' He spoke splen- 
didly of you. He said that as they marched 
back from Fort Hays to Harker, he asked what 
those courier-stations were for, and General 
Smith said, 'Why, I suppose it's Custer writing 
to his wife,' and so on ; and as he was talkmg to 



EN ROUTE 10 CAMP. 



547 



the bishop of the State, and everybody in the car 
was hstening, there was a great laugh. He says 
he does not know whether an Indian war will take 
place or not. If it does not. we shall go to Fort 
Garland in August. If there is war, the summer 
will be spent in roaming, and the winter at Mar- 
ker, Hays or Riley. I will try not to worry about 
your scouting trip, but shall be so thankful to see 
you again. When I once get out there, I will try 
and be content to be left alone in your absence. 
General Hancock has treated me with remarkable 
politeness. I begin to think that those who make 
efforts to be with their wives will always find 
officers to help them." 



Fort Harker, e7i route to Fort Hays. 
" At last I am here, safe and sound. I received 
your letters from Hays, telling me to come on with 
General Smith, after I returned from Leavenworth 
Saturday night ; but General Sherman asked me, 
and I determined to take the first chance, as you 
wrote me to. So here I am. I am detained here 
against my will. I cannot induce General Gibbs 
to let me set out for Hays to-night. He considers 
it dangerous ; but I am so impatient, so disap- 
pointed, I am in a fume. I am not too tired to 
start to-night, and oh, I can hardly wait. I have 
only a small trunk and my roll of bedding, and 
can go in light marching order." 



" Back at Fort Riley again, 
" June 27, 1867. 
" I have never been in a more uncertain frame 
of mind about you, than since I returned here. 
First I hear rumors that you may return to the 
Department, and yet, when I left Hays, it was cer- 
tain that you would remain in the Platte during 



^/j.8 TEyriXG OV 'iHE PLAIXS. 

the summer. Oh, how exasperated it makes me, 
especially when I see by your letter that you al- 
most hope to meet me at Fort Wallace. General 
Wright asked me to go with him, and if there had 
been a shadow of a chance of my seeing you when 
I did reach Wallace, or any way by which I could 
have returned, I would have gone, and hardly 
given the Indians a thought. 

" It was impossible for me to remain at Hays. 
You know you told me to remain, even if I moved 
off from the Reservation. But the post is removed 
sixteen miles, and so few troops are left there that 
the place is unsafe. But we had no choice, as we 
were sent away. At dark, a week ago Sunday, 
we were told to be ready to move at 9 o'clock that 
night. We started at 12 p. m. Rumors and true 
reports came in so fast to General Smith that he 
knew he ought to be at Harker, and that we 
w omen ought to be in a safe place. We left in 
an amazing hurry, and had rather a trying march. 
The drunkenness of the escort kept one of the 
officers on the look-out constantly. Packing our 
traps so hurriedly — for all our baggage came after 
we' arrived — tired me out. But now we are safely 
here with them, I am ready to start for you at a 
moment's notice, with little or no baggage this 
time. 

" General Sherman sent word to me that I had 
best remain quietly at Riley, as my husband will 
be on the march all summer. Quietly ! He may 
talk about living quietly, but I cannot. The 
road between Hays and Harker grows more and 
more unsafe, and the officers say we came away 
just in time. 

" After the freshets, the hot sun and rain, living 
under wagon-covers, in tents, the house seems 
very comfortable, but our things are dreadfully 



TERRORS ARE FORGOTTEX. 549 

broken up, as I have had them packed in wagons 
three times in the past three weeks. We have 
had some things stolen. Everybody has been 
kind to us, helping us move and pack. I try not 
to despair about getting to you again. I am 
ready to set out for Hays, or any point where I 
can see you, at fifteen minutes' notice. Remem- 
ber, I am not afraid of Indians, or anything else, 
if you are at the end of the trip. 

If I can only get out there for a brief visit, I 
will be so thankful I 

"The mail no longer leaves, and it seems use- 
less to write, but I keep watching for courier or 
any one that leaves here to go West, trying for 
everv chance to eet off a letter to vou." 



L 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GRATITUDE A GREAT SNOW-STORM THE SIBLEY TENT 

GENERAL CUSTER DEFINES HIS AMBITION 

THE COOK DEVISES STRANGE ADDITIONS TO THE 

BILL OF FARE GENERAL HANCOCK HOLDS A 

COUNCIL WITH THE CHIEFS OF THE CHEYENNES 

THE INDIAN NOBILITY REQUEST THAT THEIR 

SUPPER BE SERVED BEFORE THE TALK THE 

PIPE OF PEACE A HINT FOR FURTHER REFRESH- 
MENTS GENERAL CUSTER VISITS THE VILLAGES 

OF SIOUX, APACHES AND CHEYENNES A DEPU- 
TATION OF THREE HUNDRED WARRIORS AND 
CHIEFS IN BATTLE LINE THE GENERAL's DE- 
SCRIPTION OF THEM CIVILIZED AND BARBAROUS 

W^ARFARE CONFRONTING EACH OTHER FLIGHT 

OF THE INDIANS GENERAL CUSTER AND HIS 

REGIMENT ARE SENT IN PURSUIT EXTRACTS 

FROM GENERAL CUSTER's LETTERS W^RITTEN 
FROM FORT EARNED. 

"Fort Larned, April 9, 1867. 
T AST evening I finished my letter to you of 
J--/ twenty-one pages, but this morning- 1 find my 
pen again in my hand, to convey more thoughts, 
wishes and impressions. Oh, hov^ often the 
thought passes through my mind, that of all men 
I have cause to be most happy, most grateful and 




A CONTENTED HEART. 



551 



most contented — contented because I am happy 
— happy because I have my highest desires grati- 
fied — and grateful for these blessings. One might 
inquire upon what I base my happiness. True, I 
have neither broad acres nor untold wealth in 
store ; but these of themselves would not satisfy 
me, neither would their loss, if I possessed them, 
dishearten me. My happiness is based upon some- 
thing higher, more elevating, more ennobling, 
more refining. . . This is a reality, proven and 
thoroughly tested after an extended experience 
with the world. I may be enthusiastic and san- 
guine, but my enthusiasm never overshadows 
my judgment. 

" We are in the midst of a most terrible snow 
and hail storm. The snow has fallen several 
inches deep to-day, mingled with hail, and is now 
drifting. I do not think we had any severer 
weather at Riley the whole winter than we are 
now experiencing. It is terrible upon our horses, 
after they have been in comfortable stables all 
winter. I have been a little worried about my 
own horses, but have made them comparatively 
comfortable for the night (it is now 8 p. m.). I 
have a blanket on each, then on top of that is a 
wagon-cover, folded so as to cover each horse, 
from his ears back. Great fears are entertained 
that many of the company horses, unprotected by 
blankets, will be frozen in the morning. If Gen- 
eral Gibbs were not sharing my tent, I would 
take the mare, ' Fanchon ' in with me to-night. 

" You need not be anxious regarding my com- 
fort. I have not been uncomfortable a moment, 
while others are suffering. I rode to the fort to- 
day, on duty, through the thickest of the storm, 
and was not affected by it. General Gibbs is 
temporarily tenting with me, on account of his 




552 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



having a wall-tent. Nearly all the officers have 
been staying with me to-day, as my Sibley is 
more comfortable than their wall-tents. It's a 
great pity, on some accounts, that the Sibley tent 
has been given up by the Government. You will 
be glad that I secured this old one for the march.* 
I have not been obliged to wear my overcoat, 
in spite of the cold. I have worn the worsted 
cardigan and my ever-present dressing-gown, in 

which I am now writing. Captain has been 

at Fort Garland, and is very anxious to go there 
again, and hints constantly to that effect. You 
know how he objects to men being detailed from 
his company. Well, the cook for our mess belongs 
to his company, and he told the adjutant, in his 
droll way, when the dinner was being praised, 
that it was encouraging for his company, as of 
course we would not want to part with the cook 
and separate him entirely from his troop. Of 
course this is joking, as such a small thing as de- 
tailing a soldier would have no weight in the 
assigning of a company." 

''Fort Larned, April lo, 1867. 
" I shall have another chance to send a letter 
to-day, as the stage from the West is still due, 
delayed doubtless by the storm. In the mail to- 
day I had three letters from you. No newspapers 
came, but I am contented with what the day has 
brought me. ... I have so much to be thank- 
ful for in my life, God grant that I may always 
prove as deserving as I am grateful to Him for 
what He has given me. In years long numbered 
with the past, when I was merging upon man- 



*The Sibley tent was conical, modeled after an Indian tepee, 
and admitted of a fire on the ground in the centre, the smoke escap- 
ing from an aperture at the top. 



AMBITION DEFINED. 



55, 



hood, my every thought was ambitious — not to 
be weaUhy, not to be learned, but to be great. I 
desired to Unk my name with acts and men, and 
in such a manner as to be a mark of honor, not 
only to the present, but to future generations. 
My connection with the war may have gained 
this distinction ; but my course during the last 
five or six years has not been directed by ambi- 
tion so much as by patriotism, and I now find 
myself, at twenty-seven, with contentment and 
happiness bordering my path. 

" My ambition has been turned into an entirely 
new channel. Where I was once eager to acquire 
worldly honors and distinctions, I am now con- 
tent to try and modestly wear what I have, and 
feel grateful for them when they come, but my 
desire now is to make of myself a man worthy 
of the blessings heaped upon me." 

" Fort Larned, April lo, 1867. 

" The weather, which was so severe last night, 
has moderated, and is now quite comfortable. 
Had we not been in camp, we could not have 
escaped without loss of life, I fear. The ration of 
oats for the horses was doubled, to prevent as 
much as possible their feeling the intensity of 
the weather ; but even then the guard were kept 
walking along the picket-line all night, whipping 
the horses to keep them in motion, as otherwise 
they would have frozen. 

" Tell Eliza I discovered a new dish by accident 
the other day, but she need not try it, unless she 
wants to throw it away afterward. I told the 
cook I wanted him to cook some onions and pota- 
toes together, meanmg that I wanted him to fry 
them for breakfast. But, dinner being the next 
meal, and the soldier prompt to obey orders — even 



554 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



if it were to make a mince-pie out of polecat and 
corn meal, with red peppers for raisins — set about 
preparing, I suppose for the first time, a dish of 
onions and potatoes. He boiled and mashed the 
potatoes, then sliced his onions, and mashed pota- 
toes and onions together ; and of all the odd-tast- 
ing dishes, that was one of them. We could not 
eat it. 

" As Harrison's intentions were good, and in 
consideration of his youth (?) and inexperience, I 
said nothmg about it to him, except when he 
asked next day if I liked his onions and potatoes. 
I said yes, but did not want any just then. I think 
he comprehended that my reply was a jest. If 
Eliza had prepared such a dish, I would have 
asked her to go hunt a whip and prepare for her 
reward. But, notwithstanding the mixture of 
onions and potatoes, the man does very well, 
much better than I expected, and I know of no 
one in the command who lives as well as we do. 

" I suppose that you and Eliza will both be in- 
terested and delighted to know that your old 

friend, J , whom you both begged out of the 

guard-house and had placed on parole, is here with 
his company. I sent for him to-day, more for 
your sake than anything else, and scarcely knew 
him as he entered my tent. He is much fleshier 
than while at Riley, and in his nice new, neatly 
fitting uniform, with new boots (tell Eliza), he 
looked much handsomer than when, in his ragged 
clothes, he did police duty with the prisoners about 
the post. I suppose if you and Eliza were here I 

would have no peace until J was detailed at 

headquarters. If detailing him for headquarter 
duty would bring you both here, I believe, as Tom 
says, ' by Jocks, I'd do it.' The lieutenant of his 
company says he gave him a horse and two 



BUO YANT ANTICIPA TIONS. 



555 



blankets the first day after leaving Riley, and 
took good care of him ; he wants you to know, as 
you had asked him to remit the sentence and put 
him on parole. He also says that he is one of the 
best and neatest soldiers he ever saw." 



" Camp near Fort Larned, 
"April 12, 1867. 

"This letter I am sending by General Gibbs 
will be comparatively short, as it is now after 10, 
and reveille sounds at 5 to-morrow, and we start 
on our march for Fort Dodge, fifty miles dis- 
tant. Nearly all the officers of the Seventh were 
present at a council General Hancock held with 
the chiefs of the Cheyennes, who came into camp 
this evening. The address to them, and their 
reply, were repeated to each side by an interpreter. 
The council has just ended. Harpei^'s Weekly 
will contain illustrations of this expedition, as 
Theodore Davis, one of their artists, is with the 
expedition. 

" I hope you have received my letters descrip- 
tive of Fort Garland. One can stand in the door 
of the quarters and behold the mountain-tops in 
the distance, covered with snow, even when the 
sun is pouring down its hot rays upon the post. 
The quarters are ' adobe,' nothing more or less 
than sun-dried brick, made and dried after the ex- 
act method followed by the children of Israel, 
over which they labored and of which they after- 
ward complained. We shall have an opportunity 
to hear Spanish spoken there, and I intend to send 
for my grammar and dictionary, and we can both 
study the language. 

"I am glad you found a horse-shoe. They are 
almost invariably harbingers of good luck. Did 
you not get a letter or two with considerable sat- 



556 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



isfactory intelligence, soon after finding your 
horse-shoe ? I tied mine to my saddle, and carried 
it till one of my men made use of it in camp." 

"Pawnee Fork, Kansas, April 14, 1867. 
" Three miles beyond our present camp there is 
a large encampment of Sioux, Apaches and 
Cheyennes. A considerable number of them came 
into our camp last night, several of the principal 
chiefs remaining all night, occupying a tent that 
General Hancock had pitched for them. I should 
have written to you last night, but no messenger 
was to be sent back. I can tell you there is a 
' somebody ' who swears vengeance upon the 
mail-carriers and stage-routes, if each mail does 
not contain at least one letter from you. As I 
could not write to you, I concluded to study the 
Indian character a little. Accordingly, in my 
ever-present morning-gown and broad hat, I 
walked down to the tent of the chiefs. A senti- 
nel had been placed near, to prevent the soldiers 
from approaching too closely, from curiosity or 
other motives, so that the Indians were kept quite 
secluded. I went to their tent soon after dark 
and remained until after 10 o'clock. No other 
officers or soldiers were present. A guide and 
interpreter were there a part of the time ; also Mr. 
Davis, of Harpa-'s Weekly. The Indians were 
preparing their supper from meat and hard-tack 
furnished them by our commissary. Instead of a 
Sibley stove, they merely built their fire in the 
centre of the tent and broiled or toasted their 
meat. Each one had a pointed stick about eight- 
een inches in length. Upon this they place their 
ration of meat (two or three pounds each), and 
thrust the other end of the stick into the ground 
just outside the fire, but inclined in such a man- 



558 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ner that the meat is exposed to the heat of the 
embers. When it was cooked, they of course ate 
in quite a primitive style — with their fingers — each 
gnawing at his bone as voraciously as if he had 
not tasted food for three days. I went to the 
tent, opened it and entered — unbidden, of course, 
as not one of them could speak a word of English, 
and my education in Sioux, Cheyenne or Apache 
had been equally neglected. My entrance and 
presence did not seem to disturb their stoicism 
or equanimity in the least. All were seated around 
the circumference of the tent upon buffalo robes. I 
made my way through the smoke to a vacant 
robe, and joined the circle, but did not 'swing 
round' it. I took my place between two chiefs, 
one of whom was White Horse, a head chief of 
the Cheyennes and the other a chief of the 
Apaches. There were perhaps a dozen chiefs in 
the tent, and several Indians of a lower grade, who 
seemed to act as strikers for the rest, attending to 
the cooking of the meat, and so on. The chiefs 
were in full-dress costume, with all the Indian 
paraphernalia — paint, ornaments, etc. Some had 
earrings as large as ordinary dog-collars, with 
chains and shells attached, making a pendant 
reaching to their waists. On their breasts were 
plates of silver, generally of a half-moon shape 
and as large in diameter as a wash-basin. Their 
arms and fingers were also profusely ornamented 
with shells and silver bands. Attached to the 
scalp-lock would be a string of ornaments, so long, 
in some instances, that the end would almost 
touch the ground when the wearer was seated on 
his pony. This ornament consisted of a succes- 
sion of silver plates, forty or more, the one on top 
and nearest the head being as large as a saucer, 
the size of the others gradually diminishing to the 



AN INDIAN TEPEE. 



559 



last, which would be the size of the bottom of a 
cup. While sitting, or, rather, lying, on the buffalo 
robe, surrounded as I was by this strange and 
picturesque looking group, I could not but wonder 
what your sensations would be, if you could peer 
through the smoke of the Indian fire and see me, 
dressed as at home, surrounded by a dozen or 
more of these dusky and certainly savage-looking 
chiefs. I smiled silently as I thought of the strange 
position in which I found myself. Neither could 
I help a shudder running through me, as a thought 
darted into my mind, ' What if Libbie should ever 
fall into the hands of such savages !' 

" The two that acted as strikers for the rest 
could not be said to be in full-dress costume, un- 
less you would term it low neck and short sleeves. 
True, the neck might be regarded very low, and 
the sleeves very scant, as no garment of any de- 
scription was worn above the waist. I discovered 
advantages for this costume, particularly for cooks 
and table-waiters : their sleeves never get into the 
food or dishes. Tell Eliza to try it, as it is also a 
comfortable dress for summer, particularly in the 
shade. I am going to send her a pattern. 

" An order has just come to strike tents and 
move a few miles nearer the Indian encampment. 
I will finish my letter there." 



" 5 P- M. 
" ' Howdy: ' — We are located within a short dis- 
tance of a large Indian encampment. A deputa- 
tion of three hundred warriors and chiefs met us 
this morning soon after we left camp. I wish you 
could have seen them as we approached. They 
were formed in line, with intervals, extending 
about a mile. The sun was shining brightly, and 
as we arrived the scene was the most picturesque 



560 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



and novel I ever witnessed. Many officers pro- 
nounced it the most beautiful sight they ever saw ; 
but beauty is an improper name to apply to it, in 
my mind. What rendered the scene so striking 
and so magnificent were the gaudy colors of the 
dress and trappings of the chiefs and warriors. 
Added to this was a profuse intermingling of sil- 
ver ornaments. The whole scene reminded me 
of descriptions I have read of Moorish or Oriental 
cavalcades." 



" Pawnee Fork, April 15, 1867. 
" 20 minutes to 3 o'clock a. m. 
" Our council with the Indians did not take 
place, as I said it would in my letter of to-day, 
for the reason that the Indians gave us the slip 
immediately after dark this evening. One of the 
guides, a half-breed, reported this fact, or, rather, 
that they were saddling up to leave about sunset. 
General Hancock sent for me, and it was deter- 
mined that I, with the Seventh Cavalry, should 
surround the village and keep the Indians from 
leaving. I advised against delay. I obeyed my 
order, and completely surrounded the Indian en- 
campment about 1 2 o'clock to-night. The village 
numbered about two hundred and fifty lodges, 
but the bird had flown, leaving his lodges behind, 
and evidently flying in great haste. They feared 
us ; feared another massacre like Chivington's. I 
am to pursue them at daylight with the Seventh, 
and my orders are, to overtake them and bring 
them back if possible and hold the council. If 
they refuse to come, and are disposed to fight, I 
am to accommodate them. I may end at Forts 
Hays, Wallace or Dodge, most probably at Hays. 
If so, this will be more in our favor for meeting 
each other. I do not anticipate war, or even diffi- 



THE INDIANS ESCAPE. 



561 



culty, as the Indians are frightened to death, and 
only ran away from fear. If I can overtake them, 
which I beUeve I can, their horses being in very 
poor condition, I can at least try to disabuse t^clr 
minds of an idea of harm, so that you need not 
fear war. I am strongly for peace. Now you 
need not worry in the least about me ; I do not 
think we shall have war. It is now after 3 in the 
morning, and the breakfast is being put upon the 
table, so I must say good-night." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EXTRACTS FROM GENERAL CUSTER's LETTERS FROM 

FORT HAYS AND FORT WALLACE AN ACCOUNT OF 

KILLING HIS FIRST BUFFALO-CALF THE DEATH 

OF CUSTIS LEE EXTRACT FROM A LETTER WRIT- 
TEN BY GENERAL HANCOCK ON THE INDIAN DEPRE- 
DATIONS RIDING TO MEET THE MAIL THE DOC- 
TOR EATS INDIAN SOUP IN THE VILLAGE SOME 

ITEMS REGARDING A MATCH BUFFALO-HUNT. 

^^ ' "Fort Hays, April 20, 1867. 

IF you have received my last two letters, you 
will not be surprised at seeing this dated at 
Fort Hays. I reached here yesterday afternoon. 
We could be seen from the fort a long distance 
off, and were supposed to be Indians advancing" in 
force to attack the post. The long roll was beaten, 
every man sprang to his arms, the cannon were 
loaded, and our coming was awaited in breathless 
anxiety. No doubt a second edition of the Phil 
Kearney massacre was anticipated. When we had 
approached near enough for them to see our 
wagons and flags, their fears and doubts were 
dispelled, and an officer of the garrison came rid- 
ing out to meet us. It appears that the first alarm 
was given by two of the sutler's clerks, who had 
been out about five miles from the fort, in the 
direction in which we were, buffalo-hunting. They 
saw us several miles off advancing toward the 

562 



TRAVELING IN A CIRCLE. 563 

fort, and at once surmised that we were an over- 
whelming force of Indians bent upon capturing 
the fort. They at once scampered for the post, 
some five miles off, as fast as their horses could 
carry them, when the alarm was given and prep- 
aration made for a desperate resistance. The 
scene as described was of the most exciting char- 
acter, and now furnishes material for many good 
jokes and hearty laughs. 

" I marched one hundred and fifty miles in four 
days and a half, an average of over thirty-three 
miles a day. One night we were marching till 
daylight. They have a good joke on Lieutenant 

H , who, as you know, having been over the 

Smoky Hill stage-route, professes to know every 
inch of the way, as well as to have much Plains 
knowledge, of which we, having never crossed 
the Plains, are supposed to be ignorant. As I 
desired to send an officer and detail of men to 
Downer's Station, ten miles distant, I assigned the 

duty to Lieutenant H , supposing, from his 

conversation, that he would be perfectly familiar 
with the route. About an hour after he set out,, 
an officer came into my tent and said he believed 

Lieutenant H was returning, as he saw a party 

of men a few miles off that appeared to be his. 
After watching them some time, we discovered 
that they were moving neither toward us nor in 
the direction of Downer's Station, but in a totally 
different way. We could only explain his move- 
ments by supposing that he had discovered a 
party of Indians and was going to them. He soon 
passed out of sight, and we saw nothing more of 
him until his return several hours afterward. It 
was then developed, from his own story, that he 
had not been to Downer's, but, after leaving our 
camp, had become lost, and in wandering around,, 



2 64 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

it seems in circles all the time, trying to find the 
Station, had again come in sight of our camp. 
Believing us to be Indians, he made preparations to 
creep up to us, to reconnoitre our numbers. This, 
too, at the particular time when other officers and 
I were in front of my tent, trying to make out what 
his strangle movements could mean. All such 
occurrences, though ever so trifling in themselves, 
serve to while away a few moments of the march, 
and furnish subjects for conversation. 

" We have seen immense quantities of game, 
consisting of buffalo, antelope, wolves, elk, geese 
ducks, etc. The first member of the buffalo 
family that I saw was a calf about four week old. 
I was riding alone with one of the Delaware Ind- 
ians we employ as scouts, and had the dogs 
with me. The calf jumped up out of the tall 
grass and started to run off. The dogs all fol- 
lowed and soon overtook it, each one taking hold, 
while the calf set up a terrible bellowing ; and 
they held it till I rode up, dismounted, and killed 
it. I took off one quarter with my hunting-knife, 
and left the remainder on the ground. Just then 
one of my guides, a half-breed Cheyenne, came 
up, and before the blood had ceased flowing, 
while the carcass was still warm, he cut out the 
heart and kidneys and ate them at once, without 
any preparation or dressing whatever, just as you 
would eat an apple. I had a delightful dish of 
broiled veal for dinner that day. 

" And now I am called upon to relate a most 
unfortunate occurrence, and one, too, that you will 
deeply regret. That noble animal, ever faithful 
and true to the last moment, Custis Lee, is no 
more. I killed him last Tuesday while buff'alo- 
hunting. . . Soon after leaving camp in the 
morning, I took the dogs, and with Sergeant King. 



FIRST BUFFALO CHASE. 565 

the chief bugler, rode in advance of the cokimn, 
but still in sight. On a bluff upon our left flank 
I saw several antelope grazing. Desiring to test 
the speed of the greyhounds, Lu and Sharp, I 
galloped toward them. The dogs soon saw them, 
and away they went. Sharp tired down after 
running about a mile, but Lu, much to my sur- 
prise, outran Sharp and continued the chase 
about four miles, overhauling the antelope but 
unable to detain it alone. Rover and Ratler took 
the trail of one, and were soon beyond my sight 
and hearing. I feared to trust Ratler on the 
prairie, as I knew that he would lose himself if 
once out of sight. The result of this chase was, 
that I called Lu and Sharp off at once ; old Rover 
joined me several miles off, three hours afterward. 
Ratler never joined me, and never will, as I sup- 
pose some wolf has killed him ere this. I regret 
his loss extremely, as this is the first time he has 
ever joined in the chase and followed the trail 
himself, and he did very well. But his loss was 
neither the last nor the greatest misfortune to be- 
fall me that day. Sergeant King had vainly en- 
deavored to keep up with me, and had fallen so 
far behind as to be lost to view. I saw a buffalo 
about three-quarters of a mile in front, the first 
large one I had seen so near, so, taking Lu and 
Sharp, I galloped in pursuit. The buffalo soon 
saw me, and started at full speed across the 
country. Sharp overtook him and succeeded in 
delaying him somewhat, so that after a run of 
about three miles I was within pistol-shot of him. 
. . . I drew one of my revolvers and started 
full tilt for the buffalo, intending to ride alongside 
and kill him. He was completely blown, his tongue 
protruding, and evidently unable to continue 
the chase at the same gait much longer ; so that 



5 66 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

when he saw me coming- toward him he suddenly 
halted and turned upon me. I was too near to 
stop or turn short. I therefore gave Lee the spurs, 
and passed just in advance of the buffalo. The 
chase was then resumed. I, being on the right of 
the buffalo, passed over to the left and was soon 
near him again. I was close to him, had my pis- 
tol cocked and aimed at his side, and was about 
to pull the trigger, when the buffalo again turned 
on me and so suddenly as to cause Lee to veer to 
the left. I drew up my pistol, intending to use 
both hands in controlling the horse, when, just as 
my hand was raised to the reins, my finger acci- 
dentally and in the excitement of the moment, 
pressed the trigger and discharged the weapon, 
the ball entering Lee's neck near the top of his 
head and penetrating his brain. Both horse and 
buffalo had been at full speed. The shot pro- 
duced instant death ; not even a struggle ensued 
after he fell. . . . 

"• You can imagine what the effect would be 
upon me, the horse running his best, to fall in a 
single leap. I was thrown heels over head, clean 
over Lee, but, strange to say, I received not a 
scratch or bruise. This is the second dangerous 
fall I have had within ten days. I did not lose 
my presence of mind for a moment, and, expect- 
ing the buffalo to charge upon me at once, I had 
retained my revolver in my hand, and in an in- 
stant was on my feet, ready for a fight or a foot- 
race. Fortunately the buffalo, whether surprised 
at the sudden turn affairs had taken, or deeming 
my position bad enough, concluded to call it a 
drawn battle, and, after looking me in the eyes a 
few moments, went galloping off over the prairie, 
leaving me in possession of the battle-field, which 
I believe always belongs to the victor. But now 



mMim 







567 



5 68 TENTING ON THE PLAINS, 

came the time to try men's soles. I can recall many, 
many much more agreeable circumstances in 
which to be placed than those surrounding me at 
that time. I was dismounted, which to a cavalry- 
man is not the most pleasant thing in the 
world ; I was alone, and several miles from 
anybody, and the direction in which I was 
to find that anybody was still to be determined. 
I will confess that in hours past, have deeply 
enjoyed the solitude of my own thoughts, 
and there have been times when I would 
gladly have torn myself from some crowded 
throng in order to be left alone in my glory. Un- 
fortunately for me at this time, so favorable for 
seclusion and meditation, I was somewhat in a 
social mood, and would have greeted almost any 
man, or even woman, that I ever knew, not 

excepting .""" There was no time for 

regrets, no time to cry over spilt milk, much as I 
felt disposed so to do, and no time either for Fox 
River. If I did think of it, I intended to ford it, 
I cast but a single look at poor Lee, and that look 
satisfied me that he was dead. A moment's re- 
flection convinced me that I must abandon saddle, 
bridle and overcoat, and alone in the wide, wide 
world, which never looked half as wide before, set 
out on my 'tramp, tramp, tramp' toward the 
' boys,' who, I am sorry to say, were ' marching.' 

" I knew I was a good woodsman, quick at find- 
ing roads, good in keeping directions, etc.; but all 
these qualities had only been exercised before 
within the limits of civilization. Now it was dif- 
ferent: not a tree was to be seen, not a rock nor a 
bush ; not a single living thing was in sight, the 



*This reference was to an enemy of his, whom, of course, I bit- 
terly disliked, but to whom my husband never referred. 



LOST ON THE PLAINS. 569 

dogs having fallen far behind. Yes, there was a 
living object still in view, and that was my friend 
the buffalo. After placing about half a mile be- 
tween himself and me, he stopped and took time 
for breathing. Finding himself no longer pursued, 
he coolly stopped, and watched my proceedings 
with the greatest interest, apparently saying to 
himself, ' Who got the worst of that ? ' 

" I now tried to remember something of my 
course while chasing the buffalo, and also the dis- 
tance I had passed over, and concluded, after look- 
ing at the sun, that I had galloped about five miles 
in a semicircle, around the head of the column, j 
had set out on the left, and must now be about 
two miles in front, and to the right the same dis- 
tance. Accordingly, with^oor Lee as a starting- 
point, and also, a point of reference, I set out in 
the supposed direction, frequently looking around 
to see where the horse lay. If G. P. R. James had 
been sufficiently near, he might have described a 
solitary horseman (on foot, unfortunately) slowly 
proceeding in the direction of he was not positive 
where. I walked, with busy thoughts, you may be 
sure, about two miles, and until Lee dwindled to 
a small dark spot on the prairie. Still no signs of 
the command approaching. A slight doubt as to 
the correctness of my course began to arise, when 
1 saw the tops of the wagons as they were making 
their way up a small ravine. They were then 
some two miles distant, so I patiently sat down 
and awaited their coming. You should have seen 
the surprise of the officers when they found me 
entirely alone on the prairie, without a horse being 
in sight. An explanation followed, an officer sent 
a party after my saddle, bridle and coat, and a 
horse was loaned me, as I had left Phil and Fan- 
chon with General Smith. 



570 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



" So endcth the first lesson in buffalo-chasing. 
But the second is not like unto it. On the horse 
that was loaned me I again set out, this time nearer 
the command. I soon saw a couple of buffalo 
near by, and gave chase ; was alongside in no time, 
and began pouring the contents of a revolver into 
the side of one of them. My second shot brought 
him down, but he was on his feet almost immedi- 
ately and going off at a good rate. Again I was 
alongside, and brought him to bay with another 
shot, killing him readily. 

" You have doubtless heard of the massacre of 
the three men at the stage-station (Lookout Sta- 
tion) about twenty miles from this post. The 
station and hay-stables were burned, and the men 
so badly burned as scarcely to be recognizable. 
I was the first of the command to reach them, as 
I was looking for a camp. Seme men had been up 
the day before (the i6th; the massacre was on the 
15th) and partly buried the corpses. 'But the 
wolves had been there, uncovered the bodies, and 
eaten the flesh from the legs. The hair was burned 
from their heads. It could not be determined 
whether they had been burned alive^or after being 
killed. The flesh was roasted and crisped from 
their faces and bodies, and altogether it was one 
of the most horrible sights imaginable." 



'' Near Fort Hays, April 22, 1867. 
" The inaction to which I am subjected now, 
in our present halt, is almost unendurable. It re- 
quires all the buoyancy of my sanguine disposition 
to resist being extremely homesick. Hitherto I 
have been comparatively contented, and able to 
divert my thoughts from home to incidents and 
occurrences of the march, but even that poor pre- 
text is denied me here. You little imagine how 



HOSTILITIES PRODUCE WAR. 571 

great the sacrifice is to me. . . . Our train 
from Harker will probably arrive to-night, and 
we shall leave, soon after it reaches us, for Dodge. 
A note from headquarters last night said General 
Hancock was moderating in his desire for war. 
God grant it may be true ! . . . I can hardly 
devote the proper time and attention to my daily 
duties. ... I am almost determined that, 
come what may, you must and shall join me 
wherever I am this summer. 

" If Indian hostilities should be the result of this 
expedition, and I am sent off independently dur- 
ing the summer, as I am at present, I believe you 
can go with me. The fatigues of the march will 
be all that you will have to contend against, and 
these will not be greater than those encountered 
in going through Texas. As for overtaking the 
Indians, it is almost an impossibility. Our horses 
cannot endure the marching that their ponies can, 
fed upon nothing buf prairie-grass." 



"Fort Hays, April 23, 1867. 

" Yesterday two couriers came from headquar- 
ters, bringing with them an order assigning me 
to the command of all the troops and posts on the 
Smoky Hill route. My command extends west as 
far as Denver, and north and south as far as I choose 
to go. I can now have you with me very soon. 

" War has been declared against the Sioux and 
Cheyennes ; but you need not let this fact give 
you any unnecessary trouble or anxiety, as I be- 
lieve the hostile Indians are going north, beyond 
the limits of this Department. The present state of 
affairs was all anticipated when I sent you General 
Hancock's letter ; but, with the hope that open 
hostilities might be averted, I refrained from re- 
ferring to that. However, the Indians, by their 



572 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



late cold-blooded and heartless massacres, have 
precipitated a war, the consequences of which 
must rest with them. Two companies of the 
Seventh had a fight a few days since, near Cim- 
maron Crossing. Six Indians were killed. We 
had two men killed and an infantry officer 
wounded. I have ordered a line of couriers to 
be established between here and Fort Barker, 
consisting of six non-commissioned officers, so 
that we can have a mail three times a week, and 
but about ten hours between here and Harker. 
This post is not a regular mail-station, and some- 
times our mail is carried on to Denver and back. 
Our couriers will obviate this difficulty." 



"Fort Hays, April 25, 1867. 

" Oh, I was so tempted and provoked to-day ! 
The Superintendent of the Overland Route called 
upon me, on his way from, Denver to Junction 
City. He and the Division Superintendent had a 
car to themselves, and he offered me a seat in it. 
Only think ; in thirty hours I would have been at 
Riley ! I was tempted with the offer, and pro- 
voked at my inability to accept it. . . . The 
Superintendent called to consult with me regard- 
ing the protection of the Overland Route. I 
have issued orders for the infantry to move out 
to-morrow, and there will be five men at each 
mail-station, while in addition there will be five 
road employees, all well armed. If you were 
alone, I would have the Superintendent bring you 
back with him. Now, are you sorry you did not 
go home like the other ladies, to spend the sum- 
mer ? I need not ask, for I know nothing would 
induce you to go so far away that you would lose 
the chance of coming to camp. 

" I have not been a hundred yards from my 



r y^ TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tent since we reached here, not even to the post, 
half a mile away. I was lying on my pallet to-day, 
thinking over my blessings, and I could not help 
uttering a prayer of gratitude to God, for all that 
he has bestowed on me, and asking that I might 
be made worthy, and be led to pursue such a moral 
life that others might be benefited by my example., 
" I read most of the time, and through the Doc- 
tor I have enjoyed some interesting books. I have 
been absorbed to-day in a scientific book entitled 
' Origin of the Stars.' In reading a book of poems, 
I came across the following lines, which so nearly 
express my views, and also what I endeavor to 
make my rule of thought, that I copy them for 
you : 

" ' Blest, indeed, is he who never fell. 

But blest much more, who from the verge of hell 

Climbs up to Paradise; for sin is sweet, 

Strong is temptation, willing are the feet 

That follow pleasure; manifold her snares, 

And pitfalls lurk beneath our very prayers. 

Yet God, the clement, the compassionate, 

In pity of our weakness, keeps the gate 

Of pardon open, scorning not to wait 

Till the last moment when His mercy throws 

A splendor from the shade of Azrael's wings. 

. . . O Man ! be charity thy aim, 

Praise cannot harm, but weigh thy words of blame, 

Distrust the virtue that itself exalts. 

And turn to that which doth avow its faults. 

Pardon, not wrath, is God's best attribute.' " 



"Near Fort Hays, April 30, 1867. 
" Letters from you have not reached me as they 
should. ' Something wrong seemed a-brewing.' In 
all my life I do not remember anything that has been 
so unceasingly on my mind; but to-day Richard was 
himself again : I received your letter of Tuesday, 



A SPECK ON THE HORIZON. 



575 



The irregularity of the mails is terribly trying. 
After your letter came, I felt like a ride; so, order- 
ing my horse, slinging my field-glass over my 
shoulder, and strapping my revolver about my 
waist, I galloped off to a fine knoll, about a mile 
and a half distant, from which, I rightly conject- 
ured, an extensive view of the surrounding coun- 
try might be obtained. Arriving there, I dis- 
mounted, and throwing the rein over my arm, 
began admiring the landscape. I looked long and 
with increasing interest until, far toward the East, 
I discovered two dark specks apparently approach- 
ing. I waited long enough to distinguish that 
they were two buggies — a most unusual sight in 
these regions. I became interested, for I knew it 
was not the coach, whose arrival was expected. 
To reach the road and intercept them, it was 
necessary to traverse about two miles of prairie. 
Who knows, I said, but there may be news for 
me ! To entertain this thought was to act upon 
it, and in a moment I was in the saddle and head- 
ing for the road, as if on ' the ride for life.' Lu, 
Sharp and Rover vainly endeavored to keep up 
with me. Arriving at the road just in time, whom 
should I see but the Division Superintendent and 
express messenger! Who will deny that 'there is a 
destiny that shapes our ends '? After handshaking, 
the first words were inquiries of Riley, and the mes- 
senger answered, ' I have letters for you.' We then 
rode on together to camp. Although glad to see 
them I could hardly wait till they took their de- 
parture, so eager was I to devour my letters. . . 
" I have sent for Comstock, the scout, to join me. 
He is delighted at the idea, and has an A tent 
directly in rear of mine. Yesterday several of the 
officers were out buffalo-hunting, and one of them 
accidently shot his horse, and also a large buffalo- 



576 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



dog belonging to Company E, which at the time 
had the buffalo by the nose. The dog will recover. 
Four of the hunting-party were lost, wandered 
about all night, and finally arrived at a station ten 
miles away. I am still confident of seeing you ; 
for I cannot believe that affairs will assume that 
shape which will separate us this summer. 

"Take a dark view of it, and grant that we 
have an Indian war : we must have a base of 
supplies, to which we shall go at brief intervals; 
and at such a place you could be safe. All will 
yet be well. You will find some more horse-shoes. 

"Tell Eliza I am on the search for an Indian 
husband for her — one that won't bother her much 
to sew buttons on his shirts or trousers, and his 
washing won't be heavy, and one dish will satisfy 
him for one meal, provided it is stewed puppies. 

" I have the funniest pet now. It is a young 
beaver. He is quite tame ; runs about the tent, 
follows me, and when I lie down on the bed to 
read, he cuddles up under my gown or on my arm 
and goes to sleep. He cries exactly like a baby 
two days old. A person outside the tent would 
think there was a nursery in here, if he could hear 
it about 2 o'clock in the morning. I feed it from 
my hand at the table. Its tail is perfectly flat. I 
am going to tell Eliza that it used to be round, 
but a wagon ran over it. Its hind feet are webbed 
like a duck's ; its fore feet are like hands." 



"Near Fort Hays, May 2, 1867. 
" It never rains but it pours : I have had nine 
letters to-day. Did you ever read of a man at 
death's door being restored to life, of a drowning 
man saved, or of a person long imprisoned in dark- 
ness given back to light and liberty ? No miser 



A CANINE STEW. 



^77 



with his gold ever gloated over his possessions as 
I do to-day. You cannot imagine or realize the 
state I have been in for the last ten days. As 
General Gibbs has told you that I darn the holes 
in my socks by tying knots, I shall forward charges 
of slander against him. Tell him, as he wants 
men for the band, as soon as the other companies 
arrive, I will send him every man that ever played 
on any instrument, from a curry-comb to a thresh- 
ing-machine, including , who I know can play 

on an instrument called poker, that is, if he can 
find the music for this instrument. 

" I thought of Alfred and Blair when we sur- 
rounded the Indian camp,'at the time we supposed 
the village occupied. There were dogs of all ages, 
sexes and sizes. In one of the lodges we found 
young puppies, in another we found in a camp- 
kettle a mess of stewed dogs. The Indians ran 
off so hurridly they left all their cooking-utensils 
and meat, some of which was being prepared for 

the evening meal. Dr. C was the victim of a 

good joke. He is of an inquiring turn of mind, 
always anxious to see everything and judge for 
himself, and he was about the first to discover the 
camp-kettle containing the dogs. ' Fortunate occur- 
ence,' thought the Doctor; ' here is an opportunity 
seldom found, of judging of the Indian mode of 
preparing buffalo-meat to be eaten. Happy 
thought !' The Doctor fished out of the kettle a 
large piece of the supposed buffalo-meat, and with 
an apparently good appetite fell to and ate heartily. 
There is no means of telling how long his enjoy- 
ment might have continued, had not my half- 
breed guide come up at that moment and exam- 
ined the contents of the kettle. Taking out a 
portion, he exclaimed, ' It is dog ! ' The Doctor 
took the laugh quite coolly, remarking, ' I don't 



5 78 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

care ; it's good, any how.' I forgot, also, to tell you 
in a former letter about the only occupant of the 
Indian camp. It was a little half-breed girl. We 
found her half naked. She was perhaps eight or 
nine years old. It is all true that you have heard 
about the Indians' treatment of the httle creature. 
I had the Doctor make an examination, and he 
found she was in a horrible condition. She was 
almost insensible when we discovered her, and 
after recovering sufficiently to talk she said ' the 
Indian men did her bad.' 

" Wo be unto these Indians, if ever I overtake 
them ! The chances are, however, that I shall not 
see any of them, it being next to impossible to 
overtake them when they are forewarned and 
expecting us, as they now are. I wrote a very 
strong letter, a week or ten days ago, against an 
Indian war, picturing, as strongly as I could, the 
serious results that must follow, in the way of put- 
ting a stop to travel on the overland route, and 
interfering with the work of the Pacific Railroad, 
all of which would be a national calamity. I re- 
garded the outrages that have been committed 
lately as not the work of a tribe, but of small and 
irresponsible parties of young men, who are eager 
for war. The stampede of the Indians from the 
village, I attributed entirely to fear. I closed with 
the hope that my opinion would be received in 
the light intended, and that, if a war was finally 
to be waged, none would enter it more determined 
or earnest than I. My opinion is, that we are not 
yet justified in declaring war. 

"This evening I notified the companies that on 
Saturday, the 4th, we would have a foot-race, up- 
on the following conditions : Distance, three 
hundred yards ; the company producing the win- 
ner to be excused from guard and fatigue duty 



DIVERSIONS FOR IDLE MEN. 



579 



one week, the winner to be excused from the same 
duty twenty days. I had orderly call sounded, 
and the sergeant-major notified the eight first- 
sergeants of the race. They went back to their 
companies, and the excitement began when they 
set about ascertaining who was the fastest man 
in each company. There was constant cheering, 
clapping of hands, and laughing until dark. All 
seemed deeply interested in the event. I intro- 
duced it to give the men exercise, innocent amuse- 
ment, and something to do to keep them out of 
mischief. 

" It is also proposed that the officers of the 
Seventh and those of the post united, divide into, 
two parties, and each go buffalo-hunting, the 
party that kills the smallest number of buffalo to 
pay the expenses of a supper for the entire num- 
ber. So you see we are endeavoring to pass the 
time as pleasantly as possible. 

" I wish you were here to go buffalo-hunting. 
I know you will enjoy it. You will be carried 
away with excitement. Nothing so nearly ap- 
proaches a cavalry charge and pursuit as a buffalo- 
chase. I am so glad that you have been so pru- 
dent and thoughtful as to provide a sheet-iron 
stove. It will be invaluable to us. There are 
times during high winds, rains or storms, when it 
is impossible to cook by an out-door fire. Where 
did you learn all this ? If I had not known you, 
I would imagine that you had crossed the Plains 
several times. Comstock messes with me. I like 
to have him with me, for many reasons. He is a 
worthy man, and I am constantly obtaining valu- 
able mformation from him regarding the Indians, 
their habits, etc. He brought a large dog with 
him, which he values highly and calls ' Cuss,' an 
abbreviation of Custer." 



580 tenting on the plains. 

" Half-past i in the Morning, 
" Near Fort Hays, May 4, 1867. 

" I have this minute returned from General 
Hancock's tent, where I have been since dark. Fie 
leaves for Leavenworth in the morning, General 
Smith accompanying- him. You can return with 
the latter. He is delighted with the idea of bring- 
ing you, and will do anything in his power to 
render your trip comfortable. We have a beauti- 
ful camp, and you will be delighted with the 
country. Have a box made for the chickens, to 
fasten on behind the wagons. You had better 
have Turk, the bull-dog, and the setters led 
through the town. Bring plenty of calico dresses. 
1 hope to see you before the 20th of May. Where 
is Fox River now ? 

" To Mrs. General Custer, 
" Fox River Station." 



"Near Fort Hays, 
" May 6, 1867. 
" I must tell you about the foot-race. After 
dinner we walked up on the hill to see the eight 
picked men test their speed. It was quite excit- 
ing. The men wore only their shirts, drawers, 
and stockings. The race was won by an A Com- 
pany man. An E Company man was in ad- 
vance, but tripped, and fell just before reaching 
the goal. Everybody seemed interested. After 
that came a horse-race, one quarter of a mile, 
between an H Company horse on the part of the 
cavalry, and an infantry horse from the post. 
The infantry was very sanguine of success, their 
horse never having been beaten ; but, as fortune 
favors the brave, the cavalry horse won hand- 
somely." 



AN ORDER FOR "DOUBLE-QUICA:" 58 I 

"9:30 P. M. Near Fort Hays, May 7, 1867. 

" Will you be contented with a brief letter, as 
our hunt came off to-day, and I have ridden fifty 
miles ? The other party competing goes out to- 
morrow. Our party of seven officers killed 
twelve buffalo. One of the officers of the other 
party has been here, trying to find out how many 
we killed. But we shall hide the tongues, which 
it was agreed should be the tally, and keep our 
day's work a secret till they return. 

" I cannot help regretting that I did not think 
of what you suggested in time ; that is, that I 
send to Saline for your household goods. It 
would expedite your coming. Oh, how I wish we 
had telegraphic communication ! Send letters 
by the stages that pass you on your march here. 
Let nothing delay you a single day. Leave Gen- 
eral Smith, if he is delayed, and come on in 
advance, if you have an opportunity. Do not let 
the grass grow under your feet." 

"Fort McPherson, June 17, 1867. 

"I have delayed writing to you until I could 
learn from General Sherman something positive 
regarding my future movements. I now know. 
Be brave ! ' It is always darkest just before day.' 
General Sherman says I may not return to the 
Smoky Hill route until nearly winter, but he says 
that you can come to me here, and wondered 
why I did not bring you. General Sherman says 
he will direct the quartermaster at Omaha to 
arrange for passes ; but do not for the world let 
that detain you. Money is no consideration ! 

" I am fully aware of the great undertaking be- 
fore you. Perhaps you had better await a des- 
patch from me at Sedgwick ; but if either Gen- 
eral Hancock or General Smith will give you the 



582 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



assistance you need, you will avoid delay. If 
General Smith should send a company on a scout 
to Fort McPherson, you could come with them. 
If you can get a chance to come to Wallace, I 
will send a squadron there to meet you. I like 
this last plan best of all. I only fear you may 
not have your saddle with you. I trust so, as 
you will have considerable marching on horse- 
back to do. The ranchmen along the Platte are 
so stampeded that General Sherman thinks the 
Seventh should remain here until all difficulties are 
settled, and this may not be until winter ; but 
General Sherman says that General Hancock 
may make a fuss about taking me away from 
him, and ask to have me back. If you see Gen- 
eral Hancock, ask him to make a fuss at once ; 
in that case, you would await me on the Smoky 
Hill route. I am on a roving commission, going 
nowhere in particular, but where I please. I can- 
not advise as to which course you should pursue. 
Your judgment will meet the crisis. Once here, 
you will stay, even if we have nothing but a 
shelter-tent. Now that General Sherman says 
you can come, do not let General Hancock or 
General Smith have any peace until they send you 
to Wallace." 



" Forks of the Republican River, 
"Twenty-five Miles from Fort Wallace, 

" June 22, 1867. 
" You cannot imagine my anxiety regarding 
your whereabouts, for the reason that, if you are 
now at Wallace, you can join me in about six 
days, and we can be together all summer. I wrote 
twice from McPherson, telling you how to reach 
me by way of Wallace. I am expected to keep 
the Indians quiet on the Platte route to Denver. 



THE APPROACH OF A REUNION. 583 

They are pretty well scared. I have already 
made peace with ' Pawnee Killer' and his band of 
Sioux — the same that owned the lodges that were 
destroyed. It was intended that I should draw 
my supplies from Fort Sedgwick, but I am now 
equidistant from there and Wallace, and Com- 
stock reports the road from here to Sedgwick al- 
most impassable for trains, owing to the scarcity 
of water, while that to Wallace is good. I there- 
fore send to Wallace. Mr. Cook will set out this 
evening at sunset, with twelve wagons and a com- 
pany of cavalry as escort, a second company 
going half-way and there awaiting his return. 
Mr. Cook will return in six days, so you see what 
a splendid opportunity this is to join me. I hear 
that General Hancock is at Wallace. If so, Gen- 
eral Smith is doubtless with him, and has taken 
you along. I never was so anxious in my life. I 
will remain here until Mr. Cook returns with the 
rations — and you, I hope. Now, to prepare for 
emergencies, you may still be at Hays. I hope 
not, but, thinking you might, I will act accord- 
ingly. I want Comstock to see General Smith, 
and will send him to Hays. If you are still there, 
Comstock will take this letter to you and bring 
your reply. 

" Tell me when you can be at Wallace, and I will 
send a squadron there for you. Our marching 
will not be hard for you ; although we sometimes 
make thirty-five miles a day, it is not usual." 



CHAPTER XX. 

SACRIFICES AND SELF-DENIAL OF PIONEER DUTY POOR 

WATER AND ALKALINE DUST VAGARIES OF WEST- 
ERN WATER-WAYS DIGGING IN SUNKEN STREAM- 
BEDS FOR WATER RIVERS UNFRINGED BY TREES 

OR SHRUBS THE ALLURING MIRAGE A SHORT 

TRIBUTE TO THE WESTERN PIONEERS THEIR EN- 
DURANCE, PATIENCE AND COURAGE THE GOV- 
ERNOR OF A WESTERN TERRITORY SHINES AS A 

COOK AS WELL AS A STATESMAN THE GENERAL 

WRITES OF HIS FIRST BUFFALO-HUNT AN ACCI- 
DENTAL DISCHARGE OF HIS PISTOL KILLS MY HORSE, 
CUSTIS LEE GENERAL SHERMAN AS A SPECIAL PROV- 
IDENCE THE WESTERN TOWN ON A MOVE GOV- 
ERNMENT MAKES NO PROVISION FOR ARMY WOMEN 

TO SAY THEIR PRAYERS JOURNEY TO FORT HAYS 

THE MATCH HUNT OF THE REGIMENT SUPPER 

GIVEN BY THE VANQUISHED TO THE VICTORS RECEP- 
TION GIVEN BY THE ELEMENTS ON OUR ARRIVAL 

THE TENT GOES DOWN A SCOUT TO FORT m'pHER- 

SON A SENTINEL FIRES ON HIS FRIENDS BY MIS- 
TAKE GENERAL CUSTER SENDS ESCORT TO TAKE 

US TO HIS CAMP CAPTAIN ROBBINS AND COLONEL 

COOK ATTACKED, AND FIGHT FOR THREE HOURS. 

TT is a source of regret, as these pages grow daily 
under my hand, that I have not the power to 

place before the country the sacrifices and noble 

584 



THE HEATED EARTH. egc 

courage endured by the officers and soldiers of 
our army in their pioneer work. I can only por- 
tray, in the simplest manner, what I saw them en- 
dure unmurmuringly, as I was permitted to follow 
in the marches and campaigns of our regiment. I 
find that it is impossible to make the life clear to 
citizens, even when they ask me to describe 
personally something of frontier days, unless they 
may have been over the Plains in their journeys 
to and from the Pacific coast. Even then, they 
look from the windows of the Pullman car on to 
the desert, white with alkali, over which the heat 
rises in waves, and upon earth that struggles to give 
even life to the hardy cactus or sage-brush. Then 
I find their attention is called to our army, and I 
sometimes hear a sympathetic tone in their voices 
as they say, " Ah ! Mrs. Custer, when I rode over 
that God-forgotten land, I began to see what none 
of us at the East ever realize— the terrible life that 
our army leads on the Plains." And only lately, 
while I was in the West, a citizen described to me 
seeing a company of cavalry, that had made a ter- 
rific march, come in to the railroad at some point 
in Arizona. He told me of their blistered faces, 
their blood-shot, inflamed eyes— the result of the 
constant cloud of alkali dust through which they 
marched — the exhaustion in every limb, so notice- 
able in men of splendid vigor, with their broad 



586 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

chests, deep throats, and muscular build, because 
it told what a fearful strain it must have been 
to have reduced such stalwart athletes to weak- 
ness. What effect it would have to introduce a 
body of such indomitable men in the midst of an 
Eastern city, tired, travel-stained, but invincible ! 

After all, if we who try to be their champions 
should succeed in making this transfer by some 
act of necromancy, the men would be silent about 
their sufferings. Among the few officers who 
have written of Plains life, there is scarcely a 
mention of hardships endured. As I read over 
my husband's magazine articles for the first time 
in many years, I find scarcely a reference to the 
scorching sun, the stinging cold, the bleak winds. 
His narrative reads like the story of men who 
marched always in sunshine, coming across clear 
streams of running water and shady woods in 
which to encamp. I have been there : through 
and through the breezy, buoyant tale I see the 
background — a treeless, arid plain, brackish, mud- 
dy water, sandy, sterile soil. The faces of our 
gallant men come up to me in retrospection, blis- 
tered and swollen, the eyes streaming with moist- 
ure from the inflaming dust, the parched lips 
cracked with fever of unquenched thirst, the hands 
even puffed and fiery with the sun-rays, day 
after day. 



A PERSISTENT FOE. 587 

It seems heartless to smile in the midst of this vis- 
ion, recalled to me, of what I myself have seen, but 
I hear some civilian say, as they have often asked 
me equally inconsistent questions, " Well, why 
didn't they wear gloves ?" Where all the posses- 
sions of a man are carried on the saddle, and the 
food and forage on pack-mules, it would be im- 
possible to take along gloves to last from early 
spring till the stinging cold of late autumn. 
Thirst is an unconquerable foe. It is one of those 
enemies that may be vanquished on one field and 
come up, supported by legions of fresh desires, the 
very next day. I know nothing but the ever- 
present selfishness of our natures that requires 
such persistent fighting. Just fancy, for a mo- 
ment, the joy of reaching a river or a stream on 
the Plains ! How easy the march seemed beside 
its banks. At any moment one could descend, 
fill the canteen, and rejoin the column. It is true the 
quality of the water was not of the best, but there 
comes a time, out there, when quantity triumphs. 
It seems so good to have enough of anything, for 
the stinted supplies of all sorts make life seem 
always meagre in a country with no natural re- 
sources. But woe be to the man who puts his 
faith in a Western stream ! They used to take 
themselves suddenly out of sight, down some- 
where into the bowels of the earth, and leave the 



588 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

bed dry as dust, winding its tortuous way for 
miles, aggravating us by the constant reminder 
of where water ought to be, but where it unfort- 
unately was not. This sudden disappearance of 
water is supposed to be due to the depression of 
the rocky beds of the streams. A deep sand ab- 
sorbs the moisture from the surface, and sucks 
down into its depths all the stream. When the 
bed again rises nearer the surface, the stream 
comes to sight once more. Whoever, after the 
water disappeared, found that he must drink or 
die, was obliged to stop and dig away at the dry 
bed of the river until he found moisture. It was a 
desperate man that attempted it; one whose throat 
had become voiceless, whose mouth and lips 
ached with the swelling veins of over-heated 
blood ; for, if one delayed behind the column for 
ever so short a time, he was reminded of his inse- 
curity by a flash from a pile of stones or a bunch 
of sage-bush on the summit of a low divide. 
The wily foe that lurks in the rear of a marching 
column has no equal in vigilance. 

And then, what a generous being a soldier is ! 
How often I have seen them pass the precious 
nectar — it seemed so then, in spite of its being 
warm and alkaline ; and I speak from experience, 
for they have given me a chance also — flavored 
with poor whisky sometimes, as that old tin re- 



A TREELESS LAND. ego 

ceptacle which Government furnishes holds 
coffee, whisky or water, whichever is attainable. 
I fear that, had I scratched and dug slowly into 
the soil with the point of a sabre, and scooped 
up a minimum of water, my eye on the bluff 
near, watching and in fear of an Indian, I should 
have slaked my own thirst and let the whole 
American army go dry. But I am thankful to 
say the soldier is made of different stuff. It is 
enough to weld strongest bonds of friendship, 
like those in our army, when it is share and share 
alike ; and I am reminded of a stanza of soldier 
poetry : 

" There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, 

Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers, 
And true-lover's knots, I ween : 

The boy and the girl are bound by a kiss, 
But there's never a bond of old friends like this — 

We have drunk from the same canteen." 

I have, among our Plains photographs, a picture 
of one of the Western rivers, with no sort of tree 
or green thing growing on its banks. It is the 
dreariest picture I ever saw, and as it appears 
among the old photographs of merry groups taken 
in camp or on porches covered with our garrison 
family, it gives me a shudder even now. Among 
the photographs of the bright side of our life, this 
is the skeleton at the feast, which comes up so 
persistently. 



590 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Since all rivers and streams in the States are 
fringed with trees, it is difficult to describe how 
strange some of our Western water-ways appeared 
without so much as a border of shrubs or reeds. 
In looking over the country, as we ascended to a 
divide higher than the rest, the stream lay before 
us, winding on in the curving lines of our own 
Eastern rivers, but for miles and miles not a ves- 
tige of green bordered the banks. It seemed to 
me for all the world like an eye without an eye- 
lash. It was strange, unnatural, weird. The 
white alkali was the only border, and that spread 
on into the scorched brown grass, too short to 
protect the traveler from the glare that was 
heightened by the sun in a cloudless sky. A tree 
was often a landmark, and was mentioned on the 
insufficient maps of the country, such as " Thou- 
sand-mile Tree," a name telling its own story ; or 
" Lone Tree," known as the only one within eighty 
miles, as was the one in Dakota, where so many 
Indians buried their dead. 

What made those thirsty marches a thousand 
times worse was the alluring, aggravating mirage. 
This constantly deceived even old campaigners, 
and produced the most harrowing sort of illusions. 
Such a will-o'-the-wisp too ! for, as we believed 
ourselves approaching the blessed water, imagined 
the air was fresher, looked eagerly and expect- 



THE FRONTIERSMEN. 



591 



antly for the brown, shrivelled grass to grow 
green, off floated the deluding water farther and 
farther away. 

As I try to write something of the sacrifices of 
the soldier, who will not speak of himself, and for 
whom so few have spoken, there comes to me an- 
other class of heroes, for whom my husband had 
such genuine admiration, and in whose behalf he 
gave up his life — our Western pioneer. A desper- 
ate sort of impatience overcomes me w^hen I real- 
ize how incapable I am of paying them proper 
tribute. And yet how fast they are passing away, 
with no historians ! and hordes of settlers are 
sweeping into the western States and Territories, 
quite unmindful of the soldiers and frontiersmen, 
who fought, step by step, to make room for the 
coming of the overcrowded population of the East. 
My otherwise charming journeys West now are 
sometimes marred by the desire I feel for calling 
the attention of the travelers, who are borne by 
steam swiftly over the Plains to the places where 
so short a time since men toilsomely traveled in 
pursuit of homes. I want to ask those who journey 
for pleasure or for a new home, if they realize 
what men those were who took their lives in their 
hands and prepared the way.* Their privations 

* My father went to Michigan early in 1800, and his long journey 
was made by stage, canal-boat and schooner. He was not only a 



592 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

are forgotten, or carelessly ignored, by those who 
now go in and possess the land. The graphic 
pens of Bret Harte and others, who have written 
of the frontier, arrest the attention of the Eastern 
man, and save from oblivion some of the noble 
characters of those early days. Still, these poets 
naturally seized for portraiture the picturesque, 
romantic characters who were miners or scouts — 
the isolated instances of desperate men who had 
gone West from love of adventure, or because of 
some tragic history in the States, that drove them 
to seek forgetfulness in a wild, unfettered exist- 
ence beyond the pale of civilization. 

Who chronicles the patient, plodding, silent 
pioneer, who, having been crowded out of his 
home by too many laborers in a limited field, or, 
because he could no longer wring subsistence from 
a soil too long tilled by sire and grandsire ; or 
possibly a returned volunteer from our war, who, 
finding all places he once filled closed up, was 
compelled to take the grant of land that the Gov- 
ernment gives its soldiers, and begin life all over 



great while in making the trip, but subject to privations, illness 
and fatigue, even when using the only means of travel in those 
early days. The man who went over the old California trail fared 
far worse. His life was in peril from Indians all the distance, be- 
sides his having to endure innumerable hardships. Those who 
pioneer in a Pullman car little know what the unbeaten track held 
for the first comers. 



A SOLDIER'S SYMPATHY. 



593 



again, for the sake of wife and children ! There is 
Httle in these hves to arrest the poetical fancy of 
those writers who put into rhyme (which is the 
most lasting of all history) the lives otherwise lost 
to the world. 

How often General Custer rode up to these weary, 
plodding yeomen, as they turned aside their wagons 
to allow the column of cavalry to pass ! He was 
interested in every detail of their lives, admired 
their indomitable pluck, and helped them, if he 
could, in their difficult journeys. Sometimes, 
after a summer of hardships and every sort of dis- 
couragement, we met the same people returning 
East, and the General could not help being 
amused at the grim kind of humor, that led these 
men to write the history of their season in one 
word on the battered cover of the wagon — 
"Busted." 

We were in Kansas during all the grasshopper 
scourge, when our Government had to issue 
rations to the starving farmers deprived of every 
source of sustenance. What a marvel that men 
had the courage to hold out at all, in those exasper- 
ating times, when the crops were no sooner up 
than every vestige of green would be stripped 
from the fields ! Then, too, the struggle for water 
was great. The artesian wells that now cover the 
Western States were too expensive to undertake 



594 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



with the early settlers. The windmills that now 
whirl their gay wheels at every zephyr of the 
Plains, and water vast numbers of cattle on the 
farms, were then unthought of. ... A would-be- 
settler in Colorado, in those times of deprivation 
and struggle, wrote his history on a board and set it 
up on the trail, as a warning to others coming 
after him : "Toughed it out here two years. Re- 
sult : Stock on hand, five towheads and seven 
yaller dogs. Two hundred and fifty feet down to 
water. Fifty miles to wood and grass. Hell all 
around. God bless our home." 

It would be too painful to attempt to enumerate 
the ravages made by the Indians on the pioneer; 
and God alone knows how they faced life at all, 
working their claims with a musket beside them 
in the field, and the sickening dread of returning 
to a desolated cabin ever present in their heavy 
hearts. There are those I occasionally meet, who 
went through innumerable hardships, and over- 
came almost insurmountable obstacles, and who 
attained to distinction in that land of the 
setting sun ; but I find they only remember the 
jovial side of their early days. Not long since I 
had the privilege of talking with the Governor of 
one of our Territories. He was having an interview 
with some Mexican Senators by means of an in- 
terpreter, and after his business was finished, he 



MEETING IMMIGRANTS. 595 

turned to our party to talk with enthusiasm of his 
Territory. No youth could be more sanguine than 
he over the prospects, the climate, the natural ad- 
vantages of the new country in which he had just 
cast his lines. All his reminiscences of his early 
days in other Territories were most interesting to 
me. General Custer was such an enthusiast over 
our glorious West, that I early learned to look upon 
much that I would not otherwise have regarded 
with interest, with his buoyant feeling. ... I 
must qualify this statement, and explain that I 
could not always see such glowing colors as did 
he, while we suffered from climate, and were sigh- 
ing for such blessings as trees and water ; but we 
were both heart and soul with every immigrant we 
came across, and I think many a half-discouraged 
pioneer went on his way, after encountering my 
husband on the westward trail, a braver and more 
hopeful man. 

How well I remember the lonof wait we made 
on one of the staircases of the Capitol at Wash- 
ington, above which hung then the great picture 
by Leutze, " Westward the Course of Empire 
Takes its Way." We little thought then, hardly 
more than girl and boy as we were, that our lives 
would drift over the country which the admirable 
picture represents. The General hung round it 
with delight, and noted many points that he 



596 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

wanted me to enjoy with him. The picture made 
a great impression on us. How much deeper 
the impression, though, had we known that we 
were to hve out the very scenes depicted ! 

Coming back to the Governor : I cannot take 
time to write his well-told story. The portion of 
the interesting hour that made the greatest im- 
pression on me was his saying that the hap- 
piest days of his life were those when, for fifteen 
hundred miles, he walked beside the wagon con- 
taining his wife and babies, and drove the team from 
their old home in Wisconsin to a then unsettled 
portion of Ohio. The honors that had come to 
him as senator, governor, statesman, faded beside 
the joys of his first venture from home into 
the wilderness. I saw him, in imagination, as I 
have often seen the pioneer, looking back to the 
opening made in the front of the wagon by the 
drawing over of the canvas cover to the puckered 
circle, in which were framed the woman and 
babies for whom he could do and dare. I fall to 
wondering if there is any affection like that which 
is enhanced or born of these sacrifices in each 
other's behalf. I wonder if there can be anything 
that would so spur a man to do heroic deeds as 
the feeling that he walked in front of three de- 
pendent beings, and braved Indians, starvation, 
floods, prairie-fire, and all those perils that beset a 



REMINISCENCES OF THE BORDER. 597 

Western trail; and to see the bright, fond eyes 
of a mother, and the rosy cheeks of the httle ones, 
looking uncomplainingly out upon the desert before 
them — why, what could nerve a man's arm like 
that ? Love grows with every sacrifice, and I 
believe that many a youthful passion, that might 
have become colorless with time, has been deep- 
ened into lasting affection on those lonely tramps 
over the prairies. 

It has also been my good fortune lately to re- 
call our Western life with an ex-governor of 
another Territory, a friend of my husband's in 
those Kansas days. What can I say in admira- 
tion of the pluck of those Western men ? Even 
in the midst of his luxuriant New York life, he 
loves better to dwell on the early days of his 
checkered career, when at seven years of age he 
was taken by his parents to the land of the then 
great unknown. He had made a fortune in Cali- 
fornia, for he was a Forty-niner, and returned East 
to enjoy it. But as he lost his all soon afterward, 
there was nothing left for him to do but to start 
out again. His wife could have remained in com- 
fort and security with her friends, but she pre- 
ferred to share the danger and discomforts of her 
husband's life. Their first trip over the old trail 
to Denver (our stamping-ground afterward) was 
a journey from Missouri, the outfitting place at 



598 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the termination of the last railway going West, 
taking sixty-four days to accomplish. The wife, 
brave as she was, fell ill, and lay on the hard 
wagon-bed the whole distance. The invincible 
father took entire care of her and of his children, 
cooking for the party of eleven on the whole 
route, and did guard duty a portion of every 
night. The Indians were hovering in front and 
in rear. Two of the party were too old to walk 
and carry a musket, so that on the five men de- 
volved the guarding of their little train. Nine 
times afterward he and his wife crossed that long 
stretch of country before the railroad was com- 
pleted, always in peril, and never knowing from 
hour to hour when a band of hostiles would sweep 
down upon them. He taught his children the use 
of fire-arms as soon as they were large enough to 
hold a pistol. His daughter learned, as well as 
his sons, to be an accurate marksman, and shot 
from the pony's back when he scampered at full 
speed over the prairies. For years and years, all 
his family were obliged to be constantly vigilant. 
They lived out a long portion of their lives on the 
alert for a foe that they knew well how to dread. 
But the humorous comes in, even in the midst 
of such tragic days ! How I enjoyed and appre- 
ciated the feelings of the Governor's wife, whom 
I had known as a girl, when she rebelled at his 



A GASTRONOMIC SUCCESS. 



599 



exercising his heretofore valuable accomplishment 
as cook, after he became Governor ! How like a 
woman, and how dear such whimsicalities are, 
sandwiched in among the many admirable quali- 
ties with which such strong characters as hers are 
endowed ! It seems that on some journey over 
the Plains they entertained a party of guests the 
entire distance. The cook was a failure, and as 
the route of travel out there is not lined with 
intelligence-offices, the only thing left to do for 
the new-made Governor, rather than see his wife 
so taxed, was to doff his coat and recall the culi- 
nary gifts acquired in pioneer life. The madame 
thought her husband, now a Governor, might 
keep in secrecy his gifts at getting up a dinner. 
But he persisted, saying that it was still a 
question whether he would make a good Gov- 
ernor, and as he was pretty certain he was a 
good cook, he thought it as well to impress 
that one gift, of which he was sure, upon his 
constituents. 

The next letter from the expedition brought me 
such good news, that I counted all the frights of the 
past few weeks as nothing, compared with the 
opportunity that being in Fort Riley gave me of 
joining my husband. He wrote that the cavalry 
had been detached from the main body of the 
command, and ordered to scout the stage-route 



6oO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

from Fort Hays to Fort McPherson, then the 
most infested with savages. A camp was to be 
estabUshed temporarily, and scouting parties 
sent out from Fort Hays. To my joy, my hus- 
band said in his letter that I might embrace any 
safe opportunity to join him there. General 
Sherman proved to be the direct answer to my 
prayers, for he arrived soon after I had begun to 
look confidently for a chance to leave for Fort 
Hays. 

With the grave question of the summer cam- 
paign in his mind, it probably did not occur to 
him that he was acting as the envoy extraordi- 
nary of Divine Providence to a very anxious, lonely 
woman. While he talked with me occasionally 
of the country, about which he was an enthusiast 
— and, oh, how his predictions of its prosperity 
have come true already ! — I made out to reply 
coherently, but I kept up a very vehement, enthu- 
siastic set of inner thoughts and grateful ejacula- 
tions, blessing him for every breath he drew, 
blessing and thanking Providence that he had 
given the commander-in-chief of our forces a 
heart so fresh and warm he could feel for others, 
and a soul so loyal and affectionate for his own wife 
and family that he knew what it was to endure 
suspense and separation. He had with him some 
delightful girls, whom w^e enjoyed very much. I 



A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 6oi 

cannot remember whether, in my anxiety to go to 
my husband, my conversation led up to the sub- 
ject — doubtless it did, for I was then at that 
youthful stage of existence when the mouth 
speaketh out of the fullness of the heart — but I do 
remember that the heart in me nearly leaped out 
of my body when he invited me to go in his car 
to Fort Harker, for the railroad had been com- 
pleted to that next post. 

Diana crowded what of her apparel she could 
into her trunk, and I had a valise, but the largest 
part of our luggage was a roll of bedding, which 
I remember blushing over as it was handed into 
the special coach, for there was no baggage-car. 
It looked very strange to see such an ungainly 
bundle as part of the belongings of two young 
women, and though I was perfectly willing to 
sleep on the ground in camp, as I had done in 
Virginia and Texas, I did not wish to court hard- 
ships when I knew a way to avoid them. Though 
we went over a most interesting country. Gen- 
eral Sherman did not seem to care much for the 
outside world. He sat in the midst of us, and 
entered into all our fun ; told stories to match ours, 
joined in our songs, and was the Grand Mogul of 
our circle. One of the young girls was so capti- 
vating, even in her disloyalty, that it amused us 
all immensely. When we sang war-songs, she 



6o2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

looked silently out of the window. If we talked 
of the danger we might encounter with Indians, 
General Sherman said, slyly, he would make her 
departure from earth as easy as possible, for he 
would honor her with a military funeral. She 
knew that she must, in such a case, be wrapped 
in the Stars and Stripes, and he did not neglect 
to tell her that honor awaited her if she died, 
but she vehemently refused the honor. All 
this, which would have been trying from a 
grown person, was nothing but amusement 
to us from a chit of a girl, who doubtless took 
her coloring, as the chameleon-like creatures of 
that age do, from her latest Confederate sweet- 
heart. 

In retrospection, I like to think of the tact and 
tolerance of General Sherman, in those days of 
furious feeling on both sides, and the quiet manner 
in which he heard the Southern people decry 
the Yankees. He knew of their impoverished 
and desolated homes, and realized, living among 
them as he did in St. Louis, what sacrifices they 
had made ; more than all, his sympathetic soul 
saw into the darkened lives of mothers, wives and 
sisters who had given, with their idea of pat- 
riotism, their loved ones to their country. The 
truth is, he was back again among those peo- 
ple of whom he had been so fond, and no 



General sherman's outlook. 603 

turbulent expressions of hatred and revenge could 
unsettle the underlying- affection. Besides, he has 
always been a far-seeing man. Who keeps in 
front in our country's progress as does this war 
hero? Is he not a statesman as well as a soldier ? 
And never have the interests of our land been nar- 
rowed down to any prescribed post where he may 
have been stationed, or his life been belittled by 
any temporary isolation or division from the rest 
of mankind. Every public scheme for our advance- 
ment as a nation meets his enthusiastic welcome. 
This spirit enabled him to see, at the close of 
the war, that, after the violence of wrath should 
have subsided, the South would find themselves 
more prosperous, and capable, in the new order 
of affairs, of immense strides in progress of all 
kinds. 

I remember a Southern woman, who came to 
stay with relatives in our garrison, telling me of 
her first encounter with General Sherman after 
the war. He had been a valued friend for many 
years ; but it was too much when, on his return 
to St. Louis, he came, as a matter of course, to 
see his old friends. Smarting with the wrongs of 
her beloved South, she would not even send a 
message by the maid ; she ran to the head of the 
stairs, and in an excited tone, asked if he for one 
moment expected she would speak, so much as 



604 . TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

speak, to a Yankee ? The General went on his 
peaceful way, as unharmed by this peppery as- 
sault as a foe who is out of reach of our short- 
range Government carbines, and I can recall with 
what cordiality she came to greet him later in the 
year or two that followed. No one could main- 
tain wrath long against such imperturbable good- 
nature as General Sherman exhibited. He remem- 
bered a maxim that we all are apt to forget, " Put 
yourself in his place." 

Along the line of the railroad were the deserted 
towns, and we even saw a whole village moving 
on flat cars. The portable houses of one story 
and the canvas rolls of tents, which would soon 
be set up to form a street of saloons, were piled up 
as high as was safe, and made the strangest sort 
of freight train. The spots from which they had 
been removed were absolutely the dreariest of 
sights. A few poles, broken kegs, short chimneys 
made in rude masonry of small round stones, 
heaps of tin cans everywhere, broken bottles 
strewing the ground, while great square holes 
yawned empty where, a short time before, a can- 
vas roof covered a room stored with clumsy 
shelves, laden with liquor. Here and there a 
smoke-stained barrel protruded from the ground. 
They were the chimneys of some former dug-outs. 
I cannot describe how startled I was when I first 



THE HOMES OF OFFICERS. 605 

came near one of these improvised chimneys, and 
saw smoke pouring out, without any other evi- 
dence that I was walking over the home of a 
frontier citizen. The roof of a flat dug-out is 
level with the earth, and as no grass consents to 
grow in these temporary villages, there is nothing 
to distinguish the upturned soil that has been used 
as a covering for the beams of the roof of a dwell- 
ing from any of the rest of the immediate 
vicinity. A portion of this moving village had 
already reached the end in the railroad, and 
named itself Ellsworth, with streets called by 
various high-sounding appellations, but marked 
only by stakes in the ground. 

At Fort Barker we found a forlorn little post — a 
few log houses bare of every comfort, and no trees 
to cast a shade on the low roofs. The best of the 
quarters, belonging to the bachelor commanding 
officer, were offered to General Sherman and his 
party. We five women had one of the only two 
rooms. It seems like an abuse of hospitality, even 
after all these years, to say that the floor of un- 
even boards was almost ready for agricultural 
purposes, as the wind had sifted the prairie sand 
in between the roughly laid logs, and even the 
most careful housewife would have found herself 
outwitted if she had tried to keep a tidy floor. I 
only remember it because I was so amused to see 



6o6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the dainty women stepping around the Httle space 
left in the room between the cots, to find a place 
to kneel and say their prayers. I had given up, 
and gone to bed, as often before I had been com- 
pelled to tell my thanks to the Heavenly Father 
on my pillow, for already in the marches I had 
encountered serious obstacles to kneeling. The 
perplexed but devout women finally gave up at- 
tempting a devotional attitude, turned their faces 
to the rough wall, and held their rosaries in their 
fingers, while they sent up orisons for protection 
and guidance. They were reverential in their 
petitions ; but I could not help imagining how 
strange it must seem to these luxuriously raised 
girls, to find themselves in a country where not 
even a little prayer could be said as one would 
wish. It must have been for exigencies of our 
life that Watts wrote the comforting definition 
that " Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," " The 
upward lifting of an eye," etc., and so set the 
heart at rest about how and where the supplica- 
tion of the soul could be offered. 

At Fort Harker we bade good-by to our de- 
lightful party, the frolic and light-heartedness 
departed, and the serious side of existence ap- 
peared. I had but little realization that every 
foot of our coming march of eighty miles was 
dangerous. We had an ambulance lent us, 



6o8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and accompanied a party that had an escort. 
There were stage-stations every ten or fifteen 
miles, consisting of rude log or stone huts, hud- 
dled together for safety in case of attack. The 
stables for the relays of horses were furnished with 
strong doors of rough-hewn timber, and the win- 
dows closed with shutters of similar pattern. The 
stablemen and relays of drivers lived in no better 
quarters than the horses. They were, of course, 
intrepid men, and there was no stint in arming 
them with good rifles and abundance of ammu- 
nition. They were prepared for attack, and could 
have defended themselves behind the strong 
doors — indeed, sustained a siege, for the supplies 
were kept inside their quarters — had not the 
Indians used prepared arrows that could be 
shot into the hay, and thus set the stables on 
fire. These Plainsmen all had " dug-outs " as 
places of retreat in case of fire. They were very 
near the stables, and connected by an under- 
ground passage. They were about four feet deep. 
The roof was of timbers strong enough to hold 
four or five feet of earth, and in these retreats a 
dozen men could defend themselves, by firing 
from loop-holes that were left under the roof- 
beams. Some of the stage stations had no regu- 
lar buildings. We came upon them without being 
prepared by any signs of human life, for the dug- 



A ''ducout:' 



609 



outs were excavated from the sloping banks of 
the creeks. A few holes in the side-hill, as openings 
for man and beast, some short chimneys on the 
level ground, were all the evidence of the dreary, 
Columbarium homes. Here these men lived, facing 
death every hour rather than, earn a living in the 
monotonous pursuit of some trade or common- 
place business in the States. And at that time 
there were always desperadoes who would pursue 
any calling that kept them beyond the reach of 
the law. 

This dreary eighty miles over a monotonous 
country, varied only by the undulations that rolled 
away to Big Creek, was over at last, and Fort 
Hays was finally visible — another small post of 
log huts, like Fort Harker, treeless and desolate, 
but the stream beyond was lined with white can- 
vas, which meant the tents of the Seventh 
Cavalry. 

Again it seemed to me the end of all the 
troubles that would ever enter into my life 
had come, when I was lifted out of the 
ambulance into my husband's tent. What a 
blessing it is that there is a halcyon time 
in sanguine youth, when each difficulty van- 
quished seems absolutely the last that will ever 
come, and when one trouble ends, the stone is 
rolled against its sepulchre with the conviction 



6lO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. . 

that nothing will ever open wide the door again. 
We had much to talk about in camp. The 
first campaign of a regiment is always important 
to them, and in this case, also, the council, the 
Indian village, and its final destruction, were real- 
ly significant events. The match hunt to which 
the General refers in his letters was still a subject 
of interest, and each side took one ear in turn, to 
explain why they won, or the reasons they lost. 
Mr. Theodore Davis, the artist whom the Harpers 
sent out for the summer, was drawing sketches in 
our tent, while we advised or commented. It 
seemed well, from the discussions that followed, 
that rules for the hunt had been drawn up in ad- 
vance. It was quite a ranking affair, when two 
full majors conducted the sides. As only one 
day was given to each side, the one remaining in 
camp watched vigilantly that the party going out 
held to the rule, and refrained from starting till 
sunrise, while the same jealous eyes noticed that 
sunset saw all of them in camp again. One of 
the rules was, that no shots should be counted 
that were fired when the man was dismounted. 
This alone was a hard task, as at that time the 
splendid racing of the horse at breakneck speed, 
with his bridle free on his neck, and both hands 
busy with the gun, was not an accomplished feat. 
The horses were all novices at buffalo-hunting. 



KEEPING TALLY. 



6ii 




j^q THE TONquE^ av,.. ....... 



..Vt^ytf^lii^p^ 




GATHERING AND COUNTING THE 
TONGUES. 

also, and the game was 
thin at that season, so 
thin that a bison got 
over a great deal of ter- 
ritory in a short time. I 
remember the General's 
telling me what an art 
it was, even after the 
game was shot, to learn 
to cut out the tongue. 
It was wonderful that 
there was such success 
with so much to en- 
counter. The winning party kept their twelve 
tongues very securely hidden until the second day, 



6 1 2 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

when the losers produced the eleven they had 
supposed would not be outdone. My husband 
was greatly amused at one of our officers, who 
hovered about the camp-fires of the opposite party 
and craftily put questions to ascertain what was 
the result of the first day. 

All this was told us with great glee. Diana's 
interests were centred in the success of that party 
with whom her best beloved, for the time, hunted. 
The officers regretted our absence at their great 
" feed," as they termed it, and it must indeed have 
been a treat to have for once, in that starving 
summer, something palatable. Two wall-tents 
were put together so that the table, made of rough 
boards, stretching through both, was large enough 
for all. Victors and vanquished toasted each 
other in champagne, and though the scene was the 
plainest order of banquet, lighted by tallow 
candles set in rude brackets sawed out of cracker- 
box boards and fastened to the tent-poles, and the 
only draping a few cavalry guidons, the evening 
brightened up many a dreary day that followed. 
Gallant Captain Louis McLane Hamilton, who 
afterward fell in the battle of the Washita, was 
the hero of the hour, and bore his honors with his 
usual modesty. Four out of twelve buffaloes was 
a record that might have set a less boastful tongue 
wagging over the confidences of the evening camp- 



Convivial life. 



6i 



fire. I do not think he would have permitted Mr. 
Davis to put his picture in the illustration if he 







r,-^/J C"'^ 






.^\^i,. 



<f'f^W^$&% 



SUPPER GIVF.N BY THE VANQUISHED 

TO THE VICTORS OF THE MATCH 

BUFFALO HUNT. 

could have helped it. 

He was gifted with his pencil also ; 

'f^ f JKe ^AKQu£-f he drew caricatures admirably, and 

after a harmless laugh had gone the 

rounds, he managed, with the utmost adroitness, to 

get possession of the picture and destroy it, thus 



6 14 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

taking way the sting of ridicule, which constant 
sight of the caricature might produce. How I came 
into possession of one Httle drawing, is still a mys- 
tery, but it is very clever. Among our officers was 
one who had crossed the Plains as a citizen a year 
or two previous, and his habit of revealing mines 
of frontier lore obtained on this one trip was some- 
what tiresome to our still inexperienced officers. At 
last, after all had tried chasing antelope, and been 
more and more impressed in their failures with the 
fleetness of that winged animal. Captain Hamilton 
made a sketch representing the boaster as shoot- 
ing antelope with the shot-gun. The speck on the 
horizon was all that was seen of the game, but the 
booted and spurred man kneeling on the prairie 
was admirable. It silenced one of the stories, 
certainly, and we often wished the pencil could 
protect us further from subsequent statements 
airily made on the strength of the one stage- 
journey. 

I had arrived in the rainy season, and such an 
emptying of the heavens was a further develop- 
ment of what Kansas could do. But nothing 
damped my ardor ; no amount of soakings could 
make me think that camping-ground was not 
an Elysian field. The General had made our 
tent as comfortable as possible with his few be- 
longings, and the officers had sent in to him, for 



WIND, RAIN AND LIGHTNING. 6 I 5 

me, any comfort that they might have chanced 
to bring along on the march. I was, it seemed, 
to be especially honored with a display of what 
the elements could do at night when it was too 
dark to grope about and protect our tent. The 
wind blew a tornado, and the flashes of lightning 
illumined the tent and revealed the pole sway- 
ing ominously back and forth. A fly is an outer 
strip of canvas which is stretched over the tent to 
prevent the rain from penetrating, as well as to 
protect us in the daytime from the sun. This 
flapped and rattled and swung loose at one end, 
beating on the canvas roof like a trip-hammer, for 
it was loaded with moisture; and the wet ropes 
attached to it, and used to guy it down, were now 
loose, and lashed our rag house in an angry, vin- 
dictive manner. My husband, accustomed to the 
pyrotechnic display of the elements, slept soundly 
through the early part of the storm. But light- 
ning " murders sleep" with me, and consequently 
he was awakened by a conjugal joggle, and on ask- 
ing, " What is it ? " was informed, " It lightens ! " 
Often as this statement was made to him in his 
sudden awakenings, I do not remember his ever 
meeting it with any but a teasing, laughing reply, 
like : " Ah ! indeed ; I am pleased to be informed 
of so important a fact. This news is quite unex- 
pected," and so on, or " When, may I inquire, did 



6l6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

you learn this ? " On this occasion, however, 
there was no attempt to quiet me or delay pre- 
cautions. Feeling sure that we were in for it for 
the night, he unfastened the straps that secured 
the tent in front, and crept out to hammer down 
the ten-pins and tether the ropes. But it was of 
no earthly use. After fruitless efforts of his own, 
he called the guard from their tents, and they went 
energetically to work with the light of our lantern. 
Ropes wrenched themselves away from the tent- 
pins, straps broke, whole corners of the tent were 
torn out, even while the men were hanging with 
all their might to the upright poles to try and 
keep the ridge-pole steady, and clinging to the 
ropes to keep them from loosening entirely and 
sailing off in the air with the canvas. 

In the midst of this fracas, with the shouts of 
the soldiers calling to one another in the inky 
darkness, the crash of thunder and the howling 
or the tempest, the wife of a brave soldier was 
hiding her head under the blankets, and not one 
sound emerged from this temporary retreat. The 
great joy of getting out to camp at last was too 
fresh to extract one word, one whimper, of fear 
from under the bedding. The sunniest day at 
Fort Riley could not be exchanged, could not 
even be mentioned in the same breath, with that 
tornado of wind and rain. 



MIDNIGHT HOSPITALITY. 6 1 7 

The stalwart arms of the soldiers failed at last. 
Their brawny chests were of no more use, thrust 
against the tent-poles, than so many needles. 
Over went the canvas in a heap, the General and 
his men hanging on to the ridge-pole to clear it 
from the camp bed and save any accident. 

The voices of officers in an adjoining tent called 
out to come over to them. One, half dressed, 
groped his way to us and said there was yet room 
for more in his place, and, besides, he had a floor. 
It was a Sibley, which, having no corners with 
which those Kansas breezes can toy, is much 
more secure. I was rolled in the blankets and 
carried through the blinding rain to our hospitable 
neighbors'. The end of a tallow dip gave me a 
glimpse only of many silent forms rolled in blan- 
kets and radiating from the centre like the spokes 
of a wagon wheel. The officer owning this tent 
had taken the precaution, while at Leavenworth, 
to have a floor made in sections, so that it could 
be easily stowed away in the bottom of a prairie- 
schooner in marching. 

My husband laid me down, and we were soon 
two more spokes in the human wheel, and asleep 
in a trice. Next morning I wakened to find my- 
self alone, with a tin basin of water and a towel 
for my toilet beside me. My husband had to 
dress me in his underclothing, for everything I 



6 1 8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

had was soaked. My shoes were hopeless, so I 
was dropped into a pair of cavalry boots, and in 
this unpicturesque costume, which I covered as 
best I could with my wet dress, I was carried 
through the mud to the dining-tent, and enthron- 
ed, a la Turk, on a board which the cook produced 
from some hiding-place, where he had kept it for 
kindlings. There were not a few repetitions of 
this stormy reception in the years that followed, 
for Kansas continued its weather vagaries with 
unceasing persistency, but this, being my first, is 
as fresh in my mind as if it occurred but yes- 
terday. 

The tent might go down nightly, for all I cared 
then. Every thought of separation departed, and 
I gave myself up to the happiest hours, clamping 
about the tent in those old troop boots, indifferent 
whether my shoes ever dried. The hours flew too 
fast, though, for very soon preparations began for 
a scout, which my husband was to command. It 
took a great deal of comforting to reconcile me 
to remaining behind. The General, as usual, had 
to beg me to remember how blessed we were to 
have been permitted to rejoin each other so early 
in the summer. He told me, over and over again, 
that there was nothing, he felt, that I would not 
encounter to come to him, and that if he was de- 
tained, he would send for me. Eliza and a faith- 



WHEEDLING WOMEN. 619 

ful soldier were to be left to care for us. The 
cavalry departed, and again the days lengthened 
out longer and longer, until each one seemed forty- 
eight hours from sun to sun. We could scarcely 
take a short walk in safety. The Indians were all 
about us, and daily the sentinels were driven in, 
or attempts were made to stampede the horses 
and mules grazing about the post. The few offi- 
cers remaining, in whose care we were placed, 
came or sent every day to our tents, which were 
up the creek a short distance, to inquire what they 
could do for our comfort. Mrs. Gibbs, with her 
boys, had joined her husband, and we were their 
neighbors. 

It seemed, sometimes, as if we must get outside 
of our prescribed limits, the rolling bluffs beyond, 
tinged with green and beginning to have prairie 
flowers, looked so tempting. One evening we 
beguiled an officer, who was sitting under our 
tent fly, which was stretched in front for a shade, 
to take us for a little walk. Like many another 
man in the temporary possession of wheedling 
women, he went with us a little, and "just a little 
farther." Diana would have driven all thouaht of 
everything else save herself out of the gravest 
head. At last our escort saw the dark coming 
on so fast he insisted upon going home, and we 
reluctantly turned. As we came toward the post, 



620 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the shadows were deepening in the twilig-ht, and 
the figures of the sentinels were not visible. A 
flash, followed by a sound past our ears, that old 
campaigners describe as never to be forgotten 
when first heard, was the warning that we three 
were taken for Indians and fired upon by the 
sentinel. Another flash, but we stood rooted to 
the spot, stunned by surprise. The whiz and zip 
of the bullet seemed to be only a few inches from 
my ear. Still we were dazed, and had not the 
officer gained his senses our fate would have been 
then and there decided. The recruit, probably 
himself terrified, kept on sending those deadly 
little missives, with the terrible sound cutting the 
air around us. Our escort shouted, but it was too 
far for his voice to carry. Then he told us to run 
for our lives to a slight depression in the ground, 
and throw ourselves on our faces. I was coward 
enough to burrow mine in the prairie-grass, and 
for once in my life was devoutly grateful for 
being slender. Still, as I lay there quaking with 
terror, my body seemed to rise above the earth in 
such a monstrous heap that the dullest marksman, 
if he tried, might easily perforate me with bullets. 
What ages it seemed while we waited in this pros- 
trate position, commanded by our escort not to 
move ! The rain of bullets at last ceased, and 
blessed quiet came, but not peace of mind. The 



''LYING low:' 621 

officer told us he would creep on his hands and 
knees through the hollow portions of the plain 
about the post, approach by the creek side, and 
inform the sentinels along the line, and as soon 
as they all knew who we were he would return 
for us. With smothered voices issuing from the 
grass where our faces were still crushed as low as 
we could get them, we implored to be allowed to 
creep on with him. We prayed him not to leave 
ns out in the darkness alone. We begged him to 
tell us how he could ever find us again, if once he 
left us on ground that had no distinctive features 
by which he could trace his way back. But he 
was adamant, we must remain ; and the ring of 
authority in his tone, besides the culprit feeling we 
had for having endangered his life, kept us still 
at last. As we lay there, our hearts' thumping 
seemed to lift us up in air and imperil anew our 
wretched existence. The pretty, rounded contour 
of the girl, which she had naturally taken such de- 
light in, was now a source of agony to her, and 
she moaned out, " Oh ! how high I seem to be 
above you ! Oh, Libbie, do you think I lie as flat 
to the ground as you do ? " and so on, with all the 
foolish talk of frightened women. 

When at last our deliverance came, my relief at 
such an escape was almost forgotten in the morti- 
fication I felt at having made so much trouble ; 



622 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and I thought, with chagrin, how quickly the Gen- 
eral's gratitude to find we had escaped the bullets 
would be followed by temporary suspension of 
faith regarding my following out his instructions 
not to run risks of danger and wander away from 
the post. I wrote him an abject account of our 
hazardous performance. I renewed every prom- 
ise. I asked to be trusted again, and from that 
time there were no more walks outside the beat 
of the sentinel. 

An intense disappointment awaited me at this 
time, and took away the one hope that had kept 
up my spirits. I was watching, from day to day, 
an opportunity to go to my husband at Fort Mc- 
Pherson, for he had said I could come if any 
chance offered. I was so lonely and anxious, I 
would gladly have gone with the scout who took 
despatches and mail, though he had to travel at 
night and lie in the ravines all day to elude the 
sharp eyes of the Indians. I remember watching 
Wild Bill, as he reported at the commanding offi- 
cer's tent to get despatches for my husband, and 
wishing with all my heart that I could go with 
him. I know this must seem strange to people 
in the States, whose ideas of scouts are made up 
from stories of shooting affrays, gambling, lynch- 
ing and outlawry. I should have felt myself safe 
to go any distance with those men whom my hus- 



REVERENCE OF A SO-CALLED RUFFIAN. 62 



O 



band employed as bearers of despatches. I have 
never known women treated with such reverence 
as those whom they honored. They were touched 
to see us out there, for they measured well every 
danger of that country; and the class that followed 
the moving railroad towns were their only idea of 
women, except as they caught glimpses of us in 
camp or on the march. In those border-towns, as 
we were sometimes compelled to walk a short dis- 
tance from the depot to our ambulance, the rough 
characters in whom people had ceased to look for 
good were transformed in their very attitude as 
we approached. Of course, they all knew and 
sincerely admired the General, and, removing 
their hats, they stepped off the walk and cast such 
looks at me as if I had been little lower than the 
angels. When these men so looked at me, my 
husband was as proud as if a President had mani- 
fested pleasure at sight of his wife, and amused 
himself immensely because I said to him, after 
we were well by, that the outlaws had seemed to 
think me possessed of every good attribute, while 
to myself my faults and deficiencies appeared to 
rise mountains high. I felt that if there was a 
Christian grace that my mother had not striven to 
implant in me, I would cultivate it now, and try 
to live up to the frontier citizen's impression of U5 
as women. 



624 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

I think the General would have put me in the 
care of any scout that served him, just as readily 
as to place me in the keeping of the best officer 
we had. There was not a trust he reposed in 
them that they did not fulfill. Oh, how hard it 
was for me to see them at that time, when start- 
ing with despatches to my husband, swing them- 
selves into the saddle and disappear over the 
divide ! I feel certain, with such an end in view 
as I had, and with the good health that the tough- 
ening of our campaigns had given me, I could 
have ridden all night and slept on the horse- 
blanket in the ravines daytimes, for a great dis- 
tance. Had I been given the opportunity to join 
my husband by putting myself in their charge, 
there would not have been one moment's hesita- 
tion on my part. I knew well that when " ojfF 
duty " the scout is often in affrays where lynching 
and outlawry are every-day events of the Western 
towns ; but that had no effect upon these men's 
sense of honor when an officer had reposed a trust 
in them. Wild Bill, California Joe, Buffalo Bill, 
Comstock, Charlie Reynolds, and a group of in- 
trepid men besides, who from time to time served 
under my husband, would have defended any of 
us women put in their charge with their lives. 

I remember with distinctness what genuine ad- 
miration and gratitude filled my heart as these 



A TRIBUTE TO SCOUTS. 



625 



intrepid men rode up to my husband's tent to 
receive orders and despatches. From my woman's 
standpoint, it required far more and a vastly 
higher order of courage to undertake their jour- 
neys than to charge in battle. With women, 
every duty or task seems easier when shared by 
others. The most cowardly of us might be so 
impressionable, so sympathetic, in a great cause 
that we saw others preparing to defend, that it 
would become our own ; and it is not improbable 
that enthusiasm might take even a timid woman 
into battle, excited and incited by the daring of 
others, the bray of drums, the clash of arms, the 
call of the trumpet. But I doubt if there are 
many who could go off on a scout of hundreds of 
miles, and face death alone. It still seems to me 
supreme courage. Imagine, then, my gratitude, 
my genuine admiration, when my husband sent 
scouts with letters to us, and we saw them in re- 
turning swing lightly into the saddle and gallop 
off, apparently unconcerned, freighted with our 
messages of affection. 

Something better than such a journey awaited 
me, it seemed, when two of our Seventh Cavalry 
officers, Captain Samuel Robbins and Colonel 
William W. Cook, appeared in camp at the head 
of a detachment of cavalry and a small train of 
wagons for supplies. The General had told them. 



626 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to bring me back, and an ambulance was with the 
wagons, in which I was to ride. It did not take 
me long to put our roll of bedding and my valise 
in order ; and to say anything about the heart in 
me leaping for joy, is even a tame expression to 
describe the delight that ran through every vein 
in my body. To ascend such heights of joy, 
means a corresponding capability of descent into 
a region of suffering, about which I do not, even 
now, like to think, for the memory of my disap- 
pointment has not departed after all these years. 
The commanding officer of the department was at 
the post temporarily, and forbade my going. 
There is a hateful clause in the Army Regulations 
which gives him control of all camp-followers as 
well as troops. I ran the whole gamut of insub- 
ordination, mutiny and revolt, as I threw myself 
alone on the little camp-bed of our tent. This 
stormy, rebellious season, fought out by myself, 
ended, of course, as everything must that gives 
itself into military jurisdiction, as I was left be- 
hind in spite of myself ; but I might have been 
enlisted as a soldier for five years, and not have 
been more helpless. I put my fingers into my 
ears, not to hear the call " Boots and Saddles ! " 
as the troops mounted and rode away. I only 
felt one relief ; the officers would tell the General 
that nothing but the all-powerful command for- 



A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. 



627 



bidding them to take me had prevented my doing 
what he knew I would do if it was in my power. 
I had time also to use my husband as a safety- 
valve, and pour out my vials of wrath against the 
officer detaining me, in a long letter filling pages 
with regret that I was prevented going to him. 

The Indians were then at their worst. They 
roamed up and down the route of travel, burning 
the stations, running off stock, and attacking the 
stages. General Hancock had given up all ag- 
gressive measures. The plan was, to defend the 
route taken for supplies, and protect the stage 
company's property so far as possible. The rail- 
road building was almost entirely abandoned. As 
our officers and their detachment were for a time 
allowed to proceed quietly on their march to Mc- 
Pherson, they rather flattered themselves they 
would see nothing of the enemy. Still, every eye 
watched the long ravines that intersect the Plains 
and form such fastnesses for the wily foe. There 
is so little to prepare you for these cuts in the 
smooth surface of the plain, that an unguarded 
traveler comes almost upon a deep fissure in the 
earth, before dreaming that the lay of the land 
was not all the seeming level that stretches on to 
sunset. These ravines have small clumps of 
sturdy trees, kept alive in the drought of that arid 
climate by the slight moisture from what is often 



628 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

a buried stream at the base. The Indians know 
them by heart, and not only he in wait in them, 
but escape by these guUies, that often run on, 
growing deeper and deeper till the bed of a river 
is reached. 

In one of these ravines, six hundred savages in 
full war-dress were in ambush, awaiting the train 
of supplies, and sprang out from their hiding- 
place with horrible yells as our detachment of 
less than fifty men approached. Neither officer 
lost his head at a sight that was then new to him. 
Their courage was inborn. They directed the 
troops to form a circle about the wagons, and in 
this way the little band of valiant men defended 
themselves against attack after attack. Not a 
soldier flinched, nor did a teamster lose control of 
his mules, though the effort to stampede them 
was incessant. This running fight lasted for 
three hours, when suddenly the Indians withdrew. 
They, with their experienced eyes, first saw the 
reinforcements coming to the relief of our brave 
fellows, and gave up the attack. 

The first time I saw Colonel Cook after this 
affair, he said : "The moment I found the Ind- 
ians were on us, and we were in for a fight, I 
thought of you, and said to myself, ' If she were 
in the ambulance, before giving an order I would 
ride up and shoot her." " Would you have given 



A PROMISE DEMANDED. 629 

me no chance for life," I replied, "in case the 
battle had gone in your favor ?" "Not one," he 
said. " I should have been unnerved by the 
thought of the fate that awaited you, and I have 
promised the General not to take any chances, 
but to kill you before anything worse could 
happen." Already in these early days of the regi- 
ment's history, the accounts of Indian atrocities 
perpetrated on the women of the frontier ranches, 
had curdled the blood of our men, and over the 
camp-fire at night, when these stories were dis- 
cussed, my husband had said to the officers that 
he should take every opportunity to have me 
with him, but there was but one course he wished 
pursued ; if I was put in charge of any one in the 
regiment, he asked them to kill me if Indians 
should attack the camp or the escort on the 
march. I have referred in general terms to this 
understanding, but it was on this occasion that 
the seriousness with which the General's request 
was considered by his brother officers first came 
home to me. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ENCAMPED ON BIG CREEK PREPARATION FOR STORMS 

A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS KANSAS LIGHTNING 

SOLICITUDE ABOUT A CLOTHES-LINE WOMEN TO 

THE RESCUE MEN SAVED FROM DROWNING A 

NEW KIND OF FERRY-BOAT CATLING GUNS AS 



ANCHORS GHASTLY LIGHTS — ELIZA S NARRATIVE 

FLORA m'fLIMSY ON THE 

TREAT TO A PRAIRIE DIVIDE. 



-FLORA m'fLIMSY ON THE FRONTIER THE RE- 



T3EFORE General Custer left for Fort McPher- 
son, he removed our tents to a portion of 
that branch of Big Creek on which the post was 
established. He selected the highest ground he 
could find, knowing that the rainy season was not 
yet over, and hoping that, if the camp were on a 
knoll, the ground would drain readily and dry 
quickly after a storm. We were not a great dis- 
tance from the main stream and the fort, but still 
too far to recognize anyone that might be walking 
in garrison. The stream on which we were located 
was tortuous, and on a bend above us the colonel 
commanding, his adjutant and his escort were 

established. Between us and the fort, General 

630 



A CANl'AS HOME. 63 I 

and Mrs. Gibbs were camped, while the tents 
of a few officers on detached duty were still 
farther on. The sentinel's beat was along a line 
between us and the high ground, where the Ind- 
ians were likely to steal upon us from the bluffs. 
This guard walked his tour of duty on a line parallel 
with the stream, but was too far from it to observe 
the water closely. Each little group of tents made 
quite a show of canvas, as we had abundance of 
room to spread out, and the quartermaster was not 
obliged to limit us to any given number of tents. 
We had a hospital tent for our sitting-room, with 
a wall-tent pitched behind and opening out of the 
larger one, for our bed-room. There was a wall- 
tent for the kitchen, near, and behind us, the " A " 
tent for the soldier whom the General had left to 
take care of us in his absence. We were as safely 
placed, as to Indians, as was possible in such a 
country. As is the custom in military life, the 
officers either came every day, or sent to know if 
I could think of anything they could do for my 
comfort. The General had thought of everything, 
and, besides, I did my best not to have any wants. 
I was as capable of manufacturing needs as any- 
one, and could readily trump up a collection in 
garrison, but 1 was rendered too wary by the un- 
certainty of my tenure of that (to me) valuable 
little strip of ground that held my canvas house, 



632 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to allow my presence to be brought home to those 
gallant men, as a trouble or a responsibility. The 
idea that I might have to retreat eastward was a 
terror, and kept m subjection any passing wish I 
might indulge to have anything done for me. I 
would gladly have descended into one of the 
cellar-like habitations that were so common in 
Kansas then, and had my food handed down to 
me, if this would have enabled the officers to for- 
get that I was there, until the expedition returned 
from the Platte. Yet the elements were against 
me, and did their best to interfere with my desire 
to obliterate myself, as far as being an anxiety to 
others was concerned. 

One night we had retired, and were trying to 
believe that the thunder was but one of those 
peculiar menacing volleys of cloud-artillery that 
sometimes passed over harmlessly ; but we could 
not sleep, the roar and roll of thunder was so 
alarming. There is no describing lightning on 
the Plains. While a storm lasts, there seems to 
be an incessant glare. To be sure, there is not 
the smallest flash that does not illumine the tent, 
and there is no way of hiding from the blinding 
light. In a letter written to my husband while 
the effect of the fright was still fresh on my mind, 
I told him " the heavens seemed to shower down 
fire upon the earth, and in one minute and a half 



TIVO TERRIFIED WOMEN; ^-ti 

we counted twenty-five distinct peals of thunder." 
There seemed to be nothing for us to do but to 
he quaking and terrified under the covers. The 
tents of the oflScers were placed at some distance 
from ours intentionally, as it is impossible to 
speak low enough, under canvas, to avoid being 
heard, unless a certain space intervenes. It is 
the custom to allow a good deal of ground to in- 
tervene, if the guard is so posted as to command 
the approach to all the tents. The result was, 
that we dared not venture to try to reach a neigh- 
bor ; we simply had to endure the situation, as 
no cry could be heard above the din of the con- 
stantly increasing storm. In the midst of this 
quaking and misery, the voice of some officers 
outside called to ask if we were afraid. Finding 
that the storm was advancing to a tornado, they 
had decided to return to us and render assistance 
if they could, or at least to quiet our fears. The 
very sound of their voices calmed us, and we 
dressed and went into the outer tent to admit 
them. The entrance had been made secure by 
leather straps and buckles that the General had 
the saddler put on ; and in order to strengthen 
the tents against these hurricanes, which we had 
already learned were so violent and sudden, he 
had ordered poles at each corner sunk deep into 
the ground. These, being notched, had saplings 



634 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

laid across either side, and to these the tent-ropes 
were bound. We were thus seemingly secured 
between two barriers. He even went further in 
his precautions, and fastened a picket-rope, which 
is a small cable of itself, to either end of the 
ridge-pole, stretching it at the front and rear, and 
fastening it with an iron pin driven into the 
ground. As we opened two or three of the straps 
to admit the officers and Eliza, who always over- 
came every obstacle to get to me in danger, the 
wind drove in a sheet of rain upon us, and we 
found it difficult to strap the opening again. As 
for the guy-ropes and those that tied the tent at the 
sides, all this creaking, loosening cordage proved 
how little we could count upon its stability. 
The great tarpaulin, of the heaviest canvas made, 
which was spread over our larger tent and out in 
front for a porch, flapped wildly, lashing our poor 
little " rag house " as if in a fury of rage. In- 
deed, the whole canvas seemed as if it might 
have been a cambric handkerchief, for the man- 
ner in which it was wrenched and twisted above 
and on all sides of us. The tallow candle was 
only kept lighted by surrounding it with boxes 
to protect its feeble flame from the wind. The 
rain descended in such sheets, driven by the hur- 
ricane, that it even pressed in the tent-walls ; and 
in spite of the trenches, that every good campaign- 



THE SOAKED EARTH. 635 

ner digs about the tent, we were almost inundated 
by the streams that entered under the lower edge 
of the walls. 

The officers, finding we were sure to be drenched, 
began to fortify us for the night. They feared 
the tent would go down, and that the ridge-pole 
of a hospital-tent, being so much larger than that 
of a wall-tent, would do some fatal injury to us. 
They piled all the available furniture in a hollow 
square, leaving a little space for us. Fortunately, 
some one, coming down from the post a few days 
before, had observed that we had no table. There 
was no lumber at the post, and the next best thing 
was to send us a zinc-covered board which had 
first served for a stove ; secondly, with the addition 
of rude supports, as our table, and now did duty in 
its third existence as a life-preserver; for the ground 
was softening with the moisture, and we could not 
protect our feet, except for the narrow platform 
on which we huddled. At last the booming of 
the thunder seemed to abate somewhat, though 
the wind still shrieked and roared over the wide 
plain, as it bore down upon our frail shelter. But 
the tent, though swaying and threatening to break 
from its moorings, had been true to us through 
what we supposed to be the worst of the tempest, 
and we began to put some confidence in the cord- 
age and picket-pins. The officers decided to re- 



636 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

turn to their tents, promising to come again should 
there be need, and we reluctantly permitted them 
to go. Eliza put down something on which we 
could step over the pools into the other tent, and 
we fell into bed, exhausted with terror and excite- 
ment, hardly noticing how wet and cold we and 
the blankets were. 

Hardly had we fallen into a doze, when the 
voice of the guard at the entrance called out to 
us to get up and make haste for our lives; the 
flood was already there ! We were so agitated 
that it was difficult even to find the clothes that 
we had put under the pillow to keep them from 
further soaking, much more to get into them. It 
was then impossible to remain mside of the tent. 
We crept through the opening, and, to our horror, 
the lightning revealed the creek — which we had 
last seen, the night before, a little rill- in the bot- 
tom of the gully — now on a level with the high 
banks. The tops of good-sized trees, which fringed 
the stream, were barely visible, as the current 
swayed the branches in its onward sweep. The 
water had risen in that comparatively short time 
thirty-five feet, and was then creeping into the 
kitchen tent, which, as usual, was pitched near 
the bank. I believe no one attempted to account 
for those terrific rises in the streams, except as 
partly due to water-spouts, which were common 



PROTECTING HOUSEHOLD EFFECTS. 637 

in the early days of Kansas. I have seen the Gen- 
eral hold his watch in his hand after the bursting 
of a rain-cloud, and keep reckoning for the soldier 
who was measuring with a stick at the stream's 
bed, and for a time it recorded an inch a minute. 

Of course the camp was instantly astir after the 
alarm of the guard. But the rise of the water is 
so insidious often, that a sentinel walking his beat 
a few yards away will sometimes be unconscious 
of it until the danger is upon the troops. The 
soldiers, our own man, detailed as striker, and 
Eliza, were not so " stampeded," as they expressed 
it, as to forget our property. Almost everything 
that we possessed in the world was there, much 
of our property being fortunately still boxed. I 
had come out to camp with a valise, but the 
wagon-train afterward brought most of our things, 
as we supposed we had left Fort Riley forever. 
The soldiers worked like beavers to get every- 
thing they could farther from the water, upon a 
little rise of ground at one side of our tents. Eliza, 
the coolest of all, took command, and we each 
carried what we could, forgetting the lightning in 
our excitement. 

The officers who had come to us in the early 
part of the tempest now returned. They found 
their own camp unapproachable. The group of 
tents having been pitched on a bend in the 



638 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

crooked stream, which had the advantage of the 
circle of trees that edged the water, was now 
found to be in the worst possible locality, as the 
torrent had swept over the narrow strip of earth 
and left the camp on a newly made island, per- 
fectly inaccessible. The lives of the men and 
horses stranded on this little water-locked spot 
were in imminent peril. The officers believed 
us when we said we would do what we could to 
care for ourselves if they would go at once, as they 
had set out to do, and find succor for the soldiers. 
It was a boon to have something that it was 
necessary to do, which kept us from absolute 
abandonment to terror. We hardly dared look 
toward the rushing torrent ; the agony of seeing 
the water steal nearer and nearer our tent was 
almost unendurable. As we made our way from 
the heap of household belongings, back and forth 
to the tent, carrying burdens that we could not 
even have lifted in calmer moments, the light- 
ning became more vivid and the whole arc above 
us seemed aflame. We were aghast at what the 
brilliant light revealed. Between the bluffs that 
rose gradually from the stream, and the place 
where we were on its banks, a wide, newly made 
river spread over land that had been perfectly dry, 
and, as far as any one knew, had never been inun- 
dated before. The water had overflowed the 



INUNDA TIONS. 639 

banks of the stream above us, and swept across 
the sHght depression that intervened between our 
ground and the hills. We were left on that nar- 
row neck of land, and the water on either side of 
us, seen in the lightning's glare, appeared like 
two boundless seas. The creek had broken over 
its banks and divided us from the post below, 
while the garrison found themselves on an island 
also, as the water took a new course down there, 
and cut them off from the bluffs. This was a mis- 
fortune to us, as we had so small a number of 
men and sorely needed what help the post could 
have offered. 

While we ran hither and thither, startled at the 
shouts of the officers and men as they called to 
one another, dreading some new terror, our hearts 
sinking with uncontrollable fright at the wild 
havoc the storm was making, the two dogs that 
the General valued, Turk the bull-dog, and Rover 
his favorite fox-hound, broke their chains and flew 
at each other's throat. Their warfare had been 
long and bloody, and they meant that night to 
end the contest. The ferocity of the bull-dog was 
not greater than that of the old hound. The sol- 
diers sprang at them again and again to separate 
them. The fangs of each showed partly buried 
in the other's throat, but finally, one powerful man 
choked the bull-dog into relaxing his hold. The 



640 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

remnants of the gashed and bleeding- contestants 
were again tied at a secure distance, and the sol- 
diers renewed their work to prevent the tents from 
falling. I remember that in one gale, especially- 
furious, seventeen clung to the guy-rope in front 
and saved the canvas from downfall. 

But, after all, something worse awaited us than 
all this fury of the elements and the dread of 
worse to come to ourselves ; for the reality of the 
worst that can come to anyone was then before 
us without a warning. There rang out on the air, 
piercing our ears even in the uproar of the tem- 
pest, sounds that no one, once hearmg, ever for- 
gets. They were the despairing cries of drowning 
men. In an instant our danger was forgotten ; 
but the officers and men were scattered along 
the stream beyond our call, and Eliza was now 
completely unnerved. We ran up and down 
the bank, wringing our hands, she calling to me, 
" Oh, Miss Libbie ! What shall we do ? What shall 
we do ?" We tried to scream to those dark forms 
hurrying by us, that help might come farther 
down. Alas ! the current grew more furious as 
the branch poured into the main stream, and we 
could distinguish, by the oft-repeated glare of the 
lightning, the men waving their arms imploringly 
as they were swept down with tree-trunks, masses 
of earth, and heaps of rubbish that the current 



HUMANITY AND FRUGALITY. 64 1 

was drifting by. We were helpless to attempt 
their rescue. There can be few moments in exist- 
ence that hold such agonizing suffering as those 
where one is appealed to for life, and is powerless 
to give succor. I thought of the ropes about our 
tent, and ran to unwind one ; but they were 
lashed to the poles, stiff with moisture, and tied 
with sailors' intricate knots. In a frenzy, I tugged 
at the fastenings, bruising my hands and tearing 
the nails. The guy-ropes were equally unavail- 
able, for no knife we had could cut such a cable. 
Eliza, beside herself with grief to think she 
could not help the dying soldiers, with whom she 
had been such a favorite, came running to me 
where I was insanely struggling with the cordage,, 
and cried, " Miss Libbie, there's a chance for us 
with one man. He's caught in the branches of a 
tree ; but I've seen his face, and he's alive. He's 
most all of him under water, and the current is 
a-switchin' him about so he can't hold out long. 
Miss Libbie, there's my clothes-line we could take, 
but I can't do it, I can't do it ! Miss Libbie, you 
wouldn't have me to do it, would you ? For 
where will we get another ? " The grand human- 
ity that illumined the woman's face, full of the 
nobility of desire to save life, was so interwoven 
with frugality and her inveterate habit of protect- 
ing our things, that I hardly know how the con- 



642 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

troversy in her own mind would have ended, if I 
had not flown to the kitchen tent to get the 
clothes-Hne. The current swayed the drowning 
man so violently he was afraid to loosen his hold 
of the branches to reach the rope as we threw it 
to him over and over again, and it seemed mo- 
mentarily that he must be torn from our sight. 
The hue of death was on his face — that terrible 
blue look — while the features were pinched with 
suffering, and the eyes starting from their sockets. 
He was naked to the waist, and the chill of the 
water, and of those hours that come before dawn, 
had almost benumbed the fingers that clutched 
the branches. Eliza, like me, has forgotten noth- 
ing that happened during that horrible night, and 
I give part of her story, the details of which it is 
so difficult for me to recall with calmness : 

" Miss Libbie, don't you mind when we took 
the clothes-line an' went near to him as we could 
get, he didn't seem to understan' what we was 
up to. We made a loop and showed it to him, 
when a big flash of lightnin' came and made a 
glare, and tried to call to him to put it over his 
head. The noise of the water, and the crashin' 
of the logs that was comin' down, beside the 
thunder, drownded out our voices. Well, we worked 
half an hour over that man. He thought you and 
me, Miss Libbie, couldn't pull him in ; that we 



A GENEROUS WOMAN. 643 

wasn't strong enough. He seemed kind o' dazed- 
like ; and the only way I made him know what the 
loop was for, I put it on over my body and made 
signs. Even then, he was so swept under that 
part of the bank, and it was so dark, I didn't think 
we could get him. I could hear him bubbhn', 
bellowin', drownin' and gaggin'. Well, we pulled 
him in at last, though I got up to my waist 
in water. He was cold and blue, his teeth chat- 
terin' ; he just shuck and shuck, and his eyes was 
perfectly wild. We had to help him, for he could 
hardly walk to the Cook tent. I poured hot coffee 
down him ; and. Miss Libbie, you tore aroun' in 
the dark and found your way to the next tent for 
whisky, and the lady that never was known to 
keep any before, had some then. And I wrapped 
the drownded man in the blouse the Ginnel give 
me. It was cold and I was wet, and I needed it, 
Miss Libbie ; but didn't that man, as soon as ever 
his teeth stopped a-chatterin', jest get up and 
walk off with it ? And, Miss Libbie, the Ginnel 
wrote to you after that, from some expedition, that 
he had seen the soldier EHza gave her clothes-line 
to save, and he sent his thanks and asked how I was, 
and said I had saved his life. I just sent back 
word, in the next letter you wrote the Ginnel, 
to ask if that man said anything about my blouse 
he wore off that night. You gave one of the Gin- 



644 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

nel's blue shirts to a half-naked drownded man.. 
We saved two more and wrapped 'em in blankets,, 
and you rubbed 'em with red pepper, and kept the 
fire red-hot, and talked to them, tryin' to get the 
shiver and the scare out of 'em. I tell you, Miss 
Libbie, we made a fight for their lives, if ever any- 
one did. The clothes-line did it all. One was 
washed near to our tent, and I grabbed his 
hand. We went roun' with our lanterns, and it 
was so dark we 'spected every moment to step into 
a watery grave, for the water was so near us, and 
the flashes of lightnin' would show that it was a- 
comin' on and on. Turk and Rover would fight 
just by looking at each other, and in all that mess 
they fell on each other, an' I was sure they 
was goin' to kill each other, and, oh, my, the 
Ginnel would have taken on so about it ! But 
the soldiers dragged them apart." 

Seven men w^ere drowned near our tent, and 
their agonizing cries, when they were too far out 
in the current for us to throw our line, are sounds 
that will never be stilled. The men were from 
the Colonel's escort on the temporary island 
above us. The cavalrymen attempted, as the 
waters rose about them, to swim their horses to 
the other shore ; but all were lost who plunged 
in, for the violence of the current made swimming 
an impossibility. A few negro soldiers belonging 



m PERIL OF DROWNING. 645 

to the infantry were compelled to remain where 
they were, though the water stood three feet in 
some of the tents. When the violence of the 
storm had abated a little, one of the officers swam 
the narrowest part of the stream, and, taking a 
wagon-bed, made a ferry, so that with the help of 
soldiers that he had left behind holding one end 
of the rope he had taken over, the remaining 
soldiers were rescued and brought down to our 
little strip of land. Alas ! this narrowed and nar- 
rowed, until we all appeared to be doomed. The 
officers felt their helplessness when they realized 
that four women looked to them for protection. 
They thought over every imaginable plan. It was 
impossible to cross the inundated part of the 
plain, though their horses were saddled, with the 
thought that each one might swim with us through 
the shallowest of the water. They rode into this 
stretch of impassable prairie, but the water was 
too swift, even then, to render it anything but 
perilous. They decided that if the water contin- 
ued to rise with the same rapidity we would be 
washed away, as we could not swim nor had we 
strength to cling to anything. This determined 
them to resort to a plan, that happily we knew 
nothing of until the danger was passed. We were 
to be strapped to the Gatling guns as an anchor- 
age. These are, perhaps, the lightest of all artillery, 



646 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



but might have been heavy enough to resist the 
action of what current rose over our island. There 
would have been one chance in ten thousand of 
rescue under such circumstances, but I doubt if 
being pinioned there, watching the waves closing 
around us, would have been as merciful as per- 
mitting us to float off into a quicker death. 

While the officers and men with us were work- 
ing with all their might to save lives and property, 
the little post was beleaguered. The flood came 
so unexpectedly that the first known of it was the 
breaking in of the doors of the quarters. The 
poorly built, leaky, insecure adobe houses had been 
heretofore a protection, but the freshet filled them 
almost instantly with water. The quarters of the 
laundresses were especially endangered, being 
on even lower ground than the officers' houses. 
The women were hurried out in their night-dresses, 
clasping their crying children, while they ran to 
places pointed out by the officers, to await orders. 
Even then, one of our Seventh Cavalry officers, 
who happened to be temporarily at the garrison, 
clambered up to the roof of an adobe house to 
discover whether the women of his regiment were 
in peril. The same plan for rescue was adopted 
at the post that had been partly successful 
above. A ferry was improvised out of a 
wagon-bed, and into this were collected the women 



A BOAT MADE OF A WAGON-BED. 



647 



and children. The post was thus emptied in 
time to prevent loss of life. First the women, 
then the sick from the hospital, and finally the 
drunken men ; for the hospital Hquor was broken 
into, and it takes but a short time to make a 
soldier helplessly drunk. The Government prop- 
erty had to be temporarily abandoned, and a great 
deal was destroyed or swept away by the water. 
It was well that the camp women were inured to 
hardship, for the condition in which the cold, wet, 
frightened creatures landed, without any protec- 
tion from the storm, on the opposite bank, was 
pitiful. One laundress had no screams of terror 
or groans of suffering over physical fright ; her 
wails were loud and continuous because her sav- 
ings had been left in the quarters, and facing 
death in that frail box, as she was pulled through 
the turbid flood, was nothing to the pecuniary 
loss. It was all the men could do to keep her 
from springing into the wagon-bed to return and 
search for her money. 

On still another branch of Big Creek there was 
another body of men wrestling with wind and 
wave. Several companies, marching to New 
Mexico, had encamped for the night, and the 
freshet came as suddenly upon them as upon all 
of us. The colonel in command had to seize his 
wife, and wade up to his arms in carrying her to a 



648 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

safe place. Even then, they were warned that the 
safety was but temporary. The ambulance was 
harnessed up, and they drove through water that 
almost swept them away, before they reached 
higher ground. There was a strange coincidence 
about the death, eventually, of this officer's wife. 
A year afterward they were encamped on a 
Texas stream, with similar high banks, betokening 
freshets, and the waters rose suddenly, compelling 
them to take flight in the ambulance again ; but 
this time the wagon was overturned by the current, 
and the poor woman w^as drowned. 

When the day dawned, we were surrounded by 
water, and the havoc about us was dreadful. But 
what a relief it was to have the rain cease, and 
feel the comfort of daylight. Eliza broke up her 
bunk to make a fire, and we had breakfast for 
everybody, owing to her self-sacrifice. The water 
began to subside, and the place looked like a vast 
laundry. All the camp was flying with blankets, 
bedding and clothes. We were drenched, of 
course, having no dry shoes even, to replace those 
in w^hich we had raced about in the mud during 
the night. But these were small inconveniences, 
compared with the agony of terror that the night 
had brought. As the morning advanced, and the 
stream fell constantly, we were horrified by the 
sight of a soldier, swollen beyond all recognition, 



THE STORM RISES AGAIN: 649 

whose drowned body was imbedded in the side 
of the bank, where no one could reach it, and where 
we could not escape the sight of it. He was one 
who had implored us to save him, and our failure 
to do so seemed even more terrible than the night 
before, as we could not keep our fascinated gaze 
from the stiffened arm that seemed to have been 
stretched out entreatingly. 

Though we were thankful for our deliverance, 
the day was a depressing one, for the horror of 
the drowning men near us could not be put out 
of our minds. As night came on again, the clouds 
began to look ominous; it was murky, and it 
rained a little. 

At dark word came from the fort, to which 
some of the officers had returned, that we must 
attempt to get to the high ground, as the main 
stream, Big Creek, was again rising. All the 
officers were alarmed. They kept measuring the 
advance of the stream themselves, and guards 
were stationed at intervals, to note the rise of the 
water and report its progress. The torch-lights 
they held were like tiny fire-flies, so dark was the 
night. An ambulance was driven to our tent to 
make the attempt to cross the water, which had 
abated there slightly, and, if possible, to reach the 
divide beyond. One of the officers went in ad- 
vance, on horseback, to try the depth of the water. 



650 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

It was a failure, and the others forbade our going,, 
thinking it would be suicidal. While they were 
arguing, Diana and I were wrapping ourselves in 
what outside garments we had in the tent. She 
had been plucky through the terrible night, writ- 
ing next morning to the General that she never 
wished herself for one moment at home, and that 
even with such a fright she could never repay us 
for bringing her out to a life she liked so much. 
Yet as we tremblingly put on our outside things, 
she began to be agitated over a subject so ridicu- 
lous in such a solemn and dangerous hour, that I 
could not keep my face from what might have 
been a smile under less serious circumstances. 
Her trepidation was about her clothes. She ask- 
ed me anxiously what she should do for dresses 
next day, and insisted that she must take her 
small trunk. In vain I argued that we had no- 
where to go. We could but sit in the ambulance 
till dawn, even if we were fortunate enough to 
escape to the bluff. She still persisted, sayings 
" What if we should reach a fort, and I was 
obliged to appear in the gown I now wear ?" I 
asked her to remember that the next fort was 
eighty miles distant, with enough water between 
it and us to float a ship, not to mention roving 
bands of Indians lying in wait ; but this by no 
means quieted her solicitude about her appearance. 



FLORA McFLIMSY. - 65 1 

At last I suggested her putting on three dresses, 
one over the other, and then taking, in the Httle 
trunk from which she could not part, the most 
necessary garments and gowns. When I went 
out to get into the wagon, after the other officers 
had left, and found our one escort determined 
still to venture, I was obliged to explain that 
Diana could not make up her mind to part with 
her trunk. He was astounded that at such an 
hour, in such a perilous situation, clothes should 
ever enter anyone's head. But the trunk appeared 
at the entrance of the tent, to verify my words. 
He argued that with a wagon loaded with several 
people, it would be perilous to add unnecessary 
weight in driving through such ground. Then, 
with all his chivalry, working night and day to 
help us, there came an instant when he could no 
longer do justice to the occasion in our presence ; 
so he stalked off to one side, and what he said to 
himself was lost in the growl of the thunder. 

The trunk was secured in the ambulance, and 
Diana, Eliza and I followed. There we sat, 
getting wetter, more frightened and less plucky 
as the time rolled on. Again were we forbidden 
to attempt this mode of escape, and condemned 
to return to the tent, which was vibrating in 
the wind and menacmg a downfall. No woman 
ever wished more ardently for a brown-stone 



652 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



front than I longed for a dug-out. Any hole in 
the side of a bank would have been a palace to 
me, living as I did in momentary expectation of 
no covering at all. The rarest, most valuable of 
homes meant to me something that could not 
blow away. Those women who take refuge in 
these days in their cyclone cellar — now the popu- 
lar architecture of the West — will know well how 
comforting it is to possess something that cannot 
be readily lifted up and deposited in a neighbor- 
ing county. 

With the approach of midnight, there was again 
an abatement in the rain, and the water of the 
stream ceased to creep toward us ; so the officers, 
gaining some confidence in its final subsidence, 
again left us to go to their tents. For three days 
the clouds and thunder threatened, but at last the 
sun appeared. In a letter to my husband, dated 
June 9, 1867, I wrote: "When the sun came 
out yesterday, we could almost have worshipped 
it, like the heathen. We have had some dreadful 
days, and had not all the officers been so kind to 
us, I do not know how we could have endured 
what we have. Even some whom we do not know 
have shown the greatest solicitude in our behalf. 
We are drenching wet still, and everything we 
have is soggy with moisture. Last evening, after 
two sleepless nights, Mrs. Gibbs and her two boys, 



ESCAPE TO A DIVIDE. 653 

Alphie and Blair, Diana and I, were driven across 
the plain, from which the water is fast disappear- 
ing, to the coveted divide beyond. It is not much 
higher, as you know, than the spot where our 
tents are ; but it looked like a mountain, as we 
watched it, while the water rose all around us. 
Some of the officers had tents pitched there, and we 
women were given the Sibley tent with the floor, 
that sheltered me in the other storm. We dropped 
down in heaps, we were so exhausted for want of 
sleep, and it was such a relief to know that at last 
the water could not reach us." The letter (con- 
tinued from day to day, as no scouts were sent 
out) described the moving of the camp to more 
secure ground. It was incessant motion, for no 
place was wholly satisfactory to the officers. I 
confessed that I was a good deal unnerved by the 
frights, that every sound startled me, and a shout 
from a soldier stopped my breathing almost, so 
afraid was I that it was the alarm of another 
freshet — while the clouds were never more closely 
watched than at that time. 

A fresh trouble awaited me, for General Han- 
cock came to camp from Barker, and brought bad 
news. The letter continues : "The dangers and 
terrors of the last few days are nothing, compared 
with the information that General Hancock brings. 
It came near being the last proverbial ' straw.' I 



654 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

was heart-sick indeed, when I found that our 
schemes for being together soon were so ruthlessly 
crushed. General Hancock says that it looks as if 
you would be in the Department of the Platte for 
several months — at which he is justly indignant — 
but he is promised your return before the summer is 
ended. He thinks, that if I want to go so badly, 
I may manage to make you a flying visit up there; 
and this is all that keeps me up. The summer 
here, so far separated from you, seems to stretch 
out like an arid desert. If there were the faintest 
shadow of a chance that I would see you here 
again, I would not go, as we are ordered to. I 
will come back here again if I think there is the 
faintest prospect of seeing you. If you say so, I 
will go to Fort McPherson on the cars, if I get the 
ghost of an opportunity." 

Eliza, in ending her recollections of the flood at 
Fort Hays, says, " Well, Miss Libbie, when the 
water rose so, and the men was a-drownin', I said 
to myself in the night, if God spared me, that 
would be the last of war for me ; but when the 
waters went down, and the sun came out, then we 
began to cheer each other up, and were willing to 
go right on from there, if we could, for we wanted 
to see the Ginnel so bad. But who would have 
thought that the stream would have risen around 
the little knoll as it did ? The Ginnel thought he 



AFFECTIONATE SOLICITUDE. 655 

had fixed us so nice, and he had, Miss Libbie, for 
it was the knoll that saved us. The day the regi- 
ment left for Fort McPherson, the Ginnel staid 
behind till dark, gettin' everythin' in order to 
make you comfortable, and he left at 1 2 o'clock 
at night, with his escort, to join the troops. He'd 
rather ride all night than miss that much of his 
visit with you. Before he went, he came to my 
tent to say good-by. I stuck my hand out, and 
said, ' Ginnel, I don't like to see you goin' off in 
this wild country, at this hour of the night.' . . 
' I have to go,' he says, ' wherever I'm called 
Take care of Libbie, Eliza;' and puttin' spurs to 
his horse, off he rode. Then I thought they'd 
certainly get him, ridin' right into the mouth of 
'em. You know how plain the sound comes over 
the prairie, with nothin', no trees or anythin', to 
interfere. Well, in the night I was hearin' quare 
sounds. Some might have said they was buffalo, 
but on they went, lumpety lump, lumpety lump, 
and they was Indians ! Miss Libbie, sure as you're 
born, they was Indians gettin' out of the way, 
and, oh ! I was so scart for the Ginnel." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ORDERED BACK TO FORT MARKER A DRUNKEN ESCORT 

WILD-FLOWERS COLOR WITHOUT ODOR GAME 

WILD HORSES A DROMEDARY ON THE PLAINS 

A WOMAN PIONEERING A RIDDLED STAGE OUR 

BED RUNNING AWAY CHOLERA A CONTRAST 

RECKONING CHANCES OF PROMOTION THE ADDLED 

MAIL-CARRIER. 

A FTER the high-water experience, our things 
were scarcely dry before I found, for the 
second time, what it was to be under the complete 
subjection of military rule. The fiat was issued 
that we women must depart from camp and re- 
turn to garrison, as it was considered unsafe for 
us to remain. It was an intense disappointment ; 
for though Fort Hays and our camp were more 
than dreary, after the ravages of the storm, to 
leave there meant cutting myself off from any 
other chance that might come in my way of join- 
ing my husband, or of seeing him at our camp. 
Two of the officers and an escort of ten mounted 
men, going to Fort Harker on duty, accompanied 
our little cortege of departing women. At the 

first stage-station, the soldiers all dismounted as 

656 



A FORCED RETREAT. 657 

we halted, and managed by some pretext to get 
into the dug-out and buy whisky. Not long after 
we were aeain en route I saw one of the men reel 
on his saddle, and he was lifted into the wagon 
that carried forage for the mules and horses. One 
by one, all were finally dumped into the wagons 
by the teamsters, who fortunately were sober, and 
the troopers' horses were tied behind the vehicles, 
and we found ourselves without an escort. Plains 
whisky is usually very rapid in its effect, but the 
stage-station liquor was concocted from drugs 
that had power to lay out even a hard-drinking 
old cavalryman like a dead person, in what 
seemed no time at all. Eliza said they only 
needed to smell it, 'twas so deadly poison. A 
barrel of tolerably good whisky sent from the 
States was, by the addition of drugs, made into 
several barrels after it reached the Plains. 

The hours of that march seemed endless. We 
were helpless, and knew that we were going over 
ground that was hotly contested by the red man. 
VVe rose gradually to the summit of each divide, and 
looked with anxious eyes into every depression ; 
but we were no sooner relieved to find it safe, 
than my terrors began as to what the next might 
reveal. When we came upon an occasional ravine, 
it represented to my frightened soul any number 
of Indians in ambush. 



658 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

In that country the air is so clear that every ob- 
ject on the brow of a small ascent of ground is 
silhouetted against the deep blue of the sky. The 
Indians place little heaps of stones on these slight 
eminences, and lurk behind them to watch the 
approach of troops. Every little pile of rocks 
seemed, to my strained eyes, to hide the head of a 
savage. They even appeared to move, and this 
effect was heightened by the waves of heat that 
hover over the surface of the earth under that 
blazing sun. I was thoroughly frightened, doubt- 
less made much more so because 1 had nothing 
else to think of, as the end of the journey would 
not mean for me what the termination of ever so 
dangerous a march would have been in the other 
direction. Had I been going over such country 
to join my husband, the prospect would have put 
temporary courage into every nerve. During the 
hours of daylight the vigilance of the officers was 
unceasing. They knew that one of the most 
hazardous days of their lives was upon them. 
They felt intensely the responsibility of the care of 
us ; and I do not doubt, gallant as they were, that 
they mentally pronounced anathemas upon officers 
who had wanted to see their wives so badly that 
they had let them come into such a country. 
When we had first gone over the route, however, 
its danger was not a circumstance to this time. 



DISTANT OBJECTS A TERROR. 659 

Our eyes rarely left the horizon ; they were 
strained to discern signs that had come to be 
famiUar, even by our hearing them discussed so 
constantly ; and we, still novices in the experience 
of that strange country, had seen for ourselves 
enough to prove that no vigilance was too great. 
If on the monotonous landscape a whirl of dust 
arose, instantly it was a matter of doubt whether 
it meant our foe or one of the strange eccentricities 
of that part of the world. The most peculiar 
communions are those that the clouds seem to 
have with the earth, which result in a cone of 
dust whirlpooling itself straight in the air, while 
the rest of the earth is apparently without commo- 
tion, bearing no relation to the funnel that seems 
to struggle upward and be dissolved into the 
passing wind. With what intense concentration 
we watched to see it so disappear ! If the puff of 
dust continued to spread, the light touching it 
into a deeper yellow and finally revealing some 
darker shades, and at last shaping itself into dusky 
forms, we were in agony of suspense until the 
field-glasses proved that it was a herd of antelopes 
fleeing from our approach. There literally seemed 
to be not one inch of the way that the watchful 
eyes of the officers, the drivers, or we women were 
not strained to discover every object that specked 
the horizon or rose on the trail in front of us. 



66o TExVTING ON THE PLAINS. 

With all the terror and suspense of those drag- 
ging miles, I could not be insensible to the superb 
and riotous colors of the wild-flowers that carpet- 
ed our way. It was the first time that I had ever 
been where the men could not be asked, and 
were not willing, to halt or let me stop and 
gather one of every kind. The gorgeousness of 
the reds and orange of those prairie blossoms was 
a surprise to me. I had not dreamed that the 
earth could so glow with rich tints. The spring 
rains had soaked the ground long enough to start 
into life the wonderful dyes that for a brief time 
emblazon the barren wilderness. The royal livery 
floats but a short period over their temporary do- 
main, for the entire cessation of even the night 
dews, and the intensity of the scorching sun, 
shrivels the vivid, flaunting, feathery petals, and 
burns the venturesome roots down into the earth. 
What presuming things, to toss their pennants 
over so inhospitable a land ! But what a boon to 
travelers like ourselves to see, for even the brief 
season, some tint besides the burnt umber and 
yellow ochre of those plains. All the short exist- 
ence of these flowers is condensed into the color, 
tropical in richness ; not one faint waft of per- 
fume floated on the air about us. But it was all 
we ought to have asked, that their brilliant heads 
appear out of such soil. This has served to make 



ODORLESS FL O WERS. 66 1 

me very appreciative of the rich exhalation of the 
Eastern gardens. I do not dare say what the first 
perfume of the honeysuckle is to me, each year 
now ; nor would I infringe upon the few adjec- 
tives vouchsafed the use of a conventional Eastern 
woman when, as it happened this ye^r, the orange 
blossoms, white jessamine, and woodbine wafted 
their sweet breaths in my face as a welcome from 
one garden to which good fortune led me. I re- 
member the starvation days of that odorless life, 
when, seeing rare colors, we instantly expected 
rich odors, but found them not, and I try to adapt 
myself to the customs of the country, and not 
rave ; but, like the children, keep up a mighty 
thinking. 

Buffalo, antelope, blacktail deer, coyote, jack- 
rabbits, scurried out of our way on that march, 
and we could not stop to follow. I was looking 
always for some new sight, and, after the relief 
that I felt when each object as we neared it turned 
out to be harmless, was anxious to see a drove of 
wild horses. There were still herds to be found 
between the Cimmaron and the Arkansas rivers. 
The General told me of seeing one of the herds 
on a march, spoke with great admiration and en- 
thusiasm of the leader, and described him as 
splendid in carriage, and bearing his head in the 
proudest, loftiest manner as he led his followers. 



662 TEXTIXG ON THE PLAINS. 

They were not large ; they must have been the 
Spanish pony of Cortez' time, as we know that the 
horse is not indigenous to America. The flowing 
mane and tail, the splendid arch of the neck, and 
the proud head carried so loftily, give the wild 
horses a larger, taller appearance than is in reality 
theirs. Few ever saw the droves of wild horses 
more than momentarily. They run like the wind. 

After the introduction of the dromedary into 
Texas, many years since, for transportation of 
supplies over that vast territory, one was brought 
up to Colorado. Because of the immense runs it 
could make without water, it was taken into the 
region frequented by the wild horses, and when 
they were sighted, the dromedary was started in 
pursuit. Two were run down, and found to be 
nearly dead when overtaken. But the poor drom- 
edary suffered so from the prickly-pear filling the 
soft ball of its feet, that no farther pursuit could 
ever be undertaken. 

I had to be content with the General's descrip- 
tion, for no wild horses came in our way. But 
there was enough to satisfy any one in the way of 
game. The railroad had not then driven to the 
right and left the inhabitants of that vast prairie. 
Our country will never again see the Plains dotted 
with game of all sorts. The railroad stretches its 
iron bands over these desert wastes, and scarcely 



A WOMAN OF COURAGE. 663 

a skulking coyote, hugging the ground and sneak- 
ing into gulches, can be discovered during a whole 
day's journey. 

As the long afternoon was waning, we were 
allowed to get out and rest a little while, for we 
had reached what was called the " Home Station," 
because at this place there was a woman, then the 
only one along the entire route. I looked with 
more admiration than I could express on this fear- 
less creature, long past the venturesome time of 
early youth, when some dare much for excite- 
ment. She was as calm and collected as her hus- 
band, whom she valued enough to endure with 
him this terrible existence. How good the things 
tasted that she cooked, and how different the 
dooryard looked from those of the other stations ! 
Then she had a baby antelope, and the apertures 
that served as windows had bits of white curtains, 
and, altogether, I did not wonder that over the 
hundreds of miles of stage-route the Home Station 
was a place the men looked forward to as the 
only reminder of the civilization that a good 
woman establishes about her. There was an 
awful sight, though, that riveted my eyes as we 
prepared to go on our journey, and the officers 
could not, by any subterfuge, save us from seeing 
it. It was a disabled stage-coach, literally riddled 
with bullets, its leather hanging in shreds, and the 



664 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

woodwork cut into splinters. When there was 
no further use of trying to conceal it from us, we 
were told that this stage had come into the station 
in that condition the day before, and the fight 
that the driver and mail-carrier had been through 
was desperate. There was no getting the sight 
of that vehicle out of my mind during the rest of 
the journey. What a friend the darkness seemed, 
as it wrapped its protecting mantle about us, after 
the long twilight ended, yet it was almost impos- 
sible to sleep, though we knew we were compara- 
tively safe till dawn. At daybreak the officers 
asked us to get out, while the mules were watered 
and fed, and rest ourselves, and though I had been 
so long riding in a cramped position, I would 
gladly have declined. Cleanliness is next to Godli- 
ness, and, one of our friends said, " With a woman, 
it is before Godliness," yet that was an occasion 
when I would infinitely have preferred to be num- 
bered with the great unwashed. However, a place 
in the little stream at the foot of the gully was 
pointed out, and we took our tin basin and towel 
and freshened ourselves by this early toilet ; but 
there was no lingering to prink, even on the part 
of the pretty Diana. Our eyes were staring on 
all sides, with a dread impossible to quell, and 
back into the ambulance we climbed, not breath- 
ing a long free breath until the last of those terri- 



AGAIN IT STORMS. 665 

ble eighty miles were passed, and we beheld with 
untold gratitude the roofs of the quarters at Fort 
Harker. 

I felt that we had trespassed as much as we 
ought upon the hospitality of the commanding 
officer of the post, and begged to be allowed to 
sleep in our ambulance while we remained in the 
garrison. He consented, under protest, and our 
wagon and that of Mrs. Gibbs were placed in the 
space between two Government storehouses, and 
a tarpaulin was stretched over the two. Eliza 
prepared our simple food over a little camp-fire. 
While the weather remained good, this was a very 
comfortable camp for us — but when, in Kansas, do 
the elements continue quiet for twenty-four hours? 
In the darkest hour of the blackest kind of night 
the wind rose into a tempest, rushing around the 
corners of the buildings, hunting out with perti- 
nacity from front and rear our poor little temporary 
home. The tarpaulin was lifted on high, and with 
ropes and picket-pins thrashing on the canvas it 
finally broke its last moorings and soared off into 
space. The rain beat in the curtains of the ambu- 
lance and soaked our blankets. Still, we crept 
together on the farther side of our narrow bed 
and, rolled up in our shawls, tried to hide our eyes 
from the lightning, and our ears from the roar of 
the storm as it swept between the sheltering build- 



666 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ings and made us feel as if we were camping in a 
tunnel. 

Our neighbor's dog joined his voice with the 
sobs and groans of the wind, while in the short 
intervals of quiet we called out, trying to get 
momentary courage from speech with each other. 
The curtain at the end of the ambulance jerked 
itself free, and in came a deluge of rain from a 
new direction. Pins, strings and four weak 
hands holding their best, did no earthly good, 
and I longed to break all military rule and 
scream to the sentinel. Not to speak to a guard on 
post is one of the early lessons instilled into every 
one in military life. It required such terror of 
the storm and just such a drenching as we were 
getting, even to harbor a thought of this direct 
disobedience of orders. Clutching the wagon- 
curtains and watching the soldier, who was re- 
vealed by the frequent flashes of lightning as he 
tramped his solitary way, might have gone on for 
some time without the necessary courage coming 
to call him, but a new departure of the wind sud- 
denly set us in motion, and I found that we were 
spinning down the little declivity back of us, with 
no knowledge of when or where we would stop. 
Then I did scream, and the peculiar shrillness of 
a terrified woman's voice reached the sentinel. 
Blessed breaker of his country's laws ! He 



RESCUE BY A SOLDIER. 66 J 

answered to a higher one, which forbids him to 
neglect a woman in danger, and left his beat to 
run to our succor. 

Our wagon was dragged back by some of the 
soldiers on night duty at the guard-house, and 
was newly pinioned to the earth with stronger 
picket-pins and ropes, but sleep was murdered 
for that night. Of course the guard reported to 
the commanding officer, as is their rule, and soon 
a lantern or two came zigzagging over the parade- 
ground in our direction, and the officers called to 
know if they could speak with us. There was no 
use in arguing. Mrs. Gibbs and her boys, Diana 
drenched and limp as to clothes, and I decidedly 
moist, were fished out of our watery camp-beds, 
and with our arms full of apparel and satchels, we 
followed the officers in the dark to the dry quar- 
ters, that we had tried our best to decline rather 
than make trouble. 

It was decided that we must proceed to Fort 
Riley, as there were no quarters to offer us ; and 
tent-life, as I have tried to describe it, had its 
drawbacks in the rainy season. Had it not 
meant for me ninety miles farther separation 
from my husband, seemingly cut off from all 
chance of joining him again, I would have wel- 
comed the plan of going back, as Fort Harker 
was at this time the most absolutely dismal and 



668 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

melancholy spot I remember ever to have seen. 
A terrible and unprecedented calamity had fal- 
len upon the usually healthful place, for cholera 
had broken out, and the soldiers were dying- by 
platoons. I had been accustomed to think, in all 
the vicissitudes that had crowded themselves into 
these few months, whatever else we were deprived 
of, we at least had a climate unsurpassed for salu- 
brity, and I still think so. For some strange 
reason, right out in the midst of that wide, open 
plain, with no stagnant water, no imperfect drain- 
age, no earthly reason, it seemed to us, this 
epidemic had suddenly appeared, and in a form 
so violent that a few hours of suffering ended 
fatally. Nobody took dying into consideration 
out there in those days ; all were well and able- 
bodied, and almost everyone was young, who ven- 
tured into that new country, so no lumber had 
been provided to make coffins. For a time the 
rudest receptacles were hammered together made 
out of the hard-tack boxes. Almost immediate bur- 
ial took place, as there was no ice, nor even a safe 
place to keep the bodies of the unfortunate vic- 
tims. It was absolutely necessary, but an awful 
thought nevertheless, this scurrying under the 
ground of the lately dead, perhaps only wrapped 
in a coarse gray army blanket, and with the burial 
service hurriedly read, for all were needed as 



PESTILENCE. 669 

nurses, and time was too precious to say even the 
last words, except in haste. The officers and their 
families did not escape, and sorrow fell upon 
every one when an attractive young woman, who 
had dared everything in the way of hardships to 
follow her husband, was marked by that terrible 
finger which bade her go alone into the valley of 
death. In the midst of this scourge, the Sisters 
of Charity came. Two of them died, and after- 
ward a priest, but they were replaced by others, 
who remained until the pestilence had wrought its 
worst ; then they gathered the orphaned children 
of the soldiers together, and returned with them 
to the parent house of their Order in Leavenworth. 
I would gladly have these memories fade out 
of my life, for the scenes at that post have no ray 
of light except the heroic conduct of the men and 
women, who stood their ground through the dan- 
ger. I cannot pass by those memorable days in 
the early history of Kansas without my tribute to 
the brave officers and men who went through so 
much to open the way for settlers. I lately rode 
through the State, which seemed when I first saw 
it a hopeless, barren waste, and found the land 
under fine cultivation, the houses, barns and fences 
excellently built, cattle in the meadows, and, 
sometimes, several teams ploughing in one field. 
I could not help wondering what the rich owners 



foyo 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



of these estates would say, if I should step down 
from the car and give them a little picture of 
Kansas, with the hot, blistered earth, dry beds of 
streams, and soil apparently so barren that not 
even the wild-flowers would bloom, save for a 
brief period after the spring rains. Then add 
pestilence, Indians, and an undisciplined, muti- 
nous soldiery who composed our first recruits, 
and it seems strange that our officers persevered 
at all. I hope the prosperous ranchman will give 
them one word of thanks as he advances to great- 
er wealth, since but for our brave fellows the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad could not have been built; 
nor could the early settlers, daring as they were, 
have sowed the seed that now yields them such 
rich harvests. 

We had no choice about leaving Fort Harker. 
There was no accommodation for us, indeed we 
would have hampered the already overworked 
officers and men; so we took our departure for 
Fort Riley. There we found perfect quiet; the 
negro troops were reduced to discipline, and every- 
thing went on as if there were no such thing as 
the dead and the dying that we had left a few 
hours before. There was but a small garrison, 
and we easily found empty quarters, that were 
lent to us by the commanding officer. 

Then the life of watching and waiting, and try- 



J BRAVE SPIRIT QUAILS. 67 1 

ing to possess my soul in patience, beg^an again, 
and my whole day resolved itself into a mental 
protest against the slowness of the hours before 
the morning mail could be received. It was a 
doleful time for us; but I remember no uttered 
complaints as such, for we silently agreed they 
would weaken our courage. If tears were shed, 
they fell on the pillow, where the blessed darkness 
came to absolve us from the rigid watchfulness 
that we tried to keep over our feelings. My hus- 
band blessed many a dark day by the cheeriest 
letters. How he ever managed to write so buoyant- 
ly, was a mystery when I found afterward what 
he was enduring. I rarely had a letter with even 
so much as a vein of discontent, during all our 
separations. At that time came two that were 
strangely in contrast to all the brave, encouraging 
missives that had cheered my day. The accounts 
of cholera met our regiment on their march into 
the Department of the Platte; and the General, 
in the midst of intense anxiety, with no prospect 
of direct communication, assailed by false reports 
of my illness, at last showed a side of his charac- 
ter that was seldom visible. His suspense regard- 
ing my exposure to pestilence, and his distress 
over the friorht and dano^er I had endured at the 
-time of the flood at Fort Hays, made his brave 
rspirit quail, and there were desperate words writ- 



672 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ten, which, had he not been relieved by news of 
my safety, would have ended in bis taking steps 
to resign. Even he, whom I scarcely ever knew 
to yield to discouraging circumstances, wrote that 
he could not and would not endure such a life. 

Our days at Fort Riley had absolutely nothing 
to vary them after mail-time. I sat on the gallery 
long before the time of distribution, pretending to 
sew or read, but watching constantly for the door 
of the office to yield up next to the most important 
man in the wide world to me. The soldier whose 
duty it was to bring the mail became so inflated 
by the eagerness with which his steps were 
watched, that it came near being the death of 
him when he joined his company in the autumn, 
and was lost in its monotonous ranks. He was a 
ponderous, lumbering fellow in body and mind, 
who had been left behind by his captain, osten- 
sibly to take care of the company property, but I 
soon found there was another reason, as his wits 
had for some time been unsettled — that is, giving 
him the benefit of a doubt — if he ever had any. 
Addled as his brain might be, the remnant of in- 
telligence was ample in my eyes if it enabled him 
to make his way to our door. As he belonged to 
the Seventh Cavalry, he considered that every- 
thing at the post must be subservient to my wish, 
when in reality I was dependent for a temporary 




THE ADDLED LETTER-CARRIER. 
673 



674 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

roof on the courtesy of the infantry officer in 
command. If I even met him in our walks, he 
seemed to swell to twice his size, and to feel that 
some of the odor of sanctity hung around him, 
whether he bore messsages from the absent 
or not. 

The contents of the mail-bag being divided, 
over six feet of anatomical and military perfection 
came stalking through the parade-ground. He 
would not demean himself to hasten, and his 
measured steps were in accordance with the gait 
prescribed in the past by his sergeant on drill. 
He appeared to throw his. head back more loftily 
as he perceived that my eyes followed his creep- 
ing steps. He seemed to be reasoning. Did 
Napoleon ever run, the Duke of Wellington ever 
hasten, or General Scott quicken his gait or impair 
his breathing, by undue activity, simply because 
an unreasoning, impatient woman was waiting 
somewhere for them to appear ? It was not at all 
in accordance with his ideas of martial character 
to exhibit indecorous speed. The great and re- 
sponsible office of conveying the letters from the 
officer to the quarters had been assigned to him, 
and nothing, he determined, should interfere with 
its being filled with dignity. His country looked 
to him as its savior. Only a casual and conde- 
scending thought was given to his comrades, who 



A FOMPO L 'S MA RS. 675 

perhaps at that time were receiving in their bodies 
the arrows of Indian warriors. No matter how 
eagerly I eyed the great official envelope in his 
hand, which I knew well was mine, he persisted 
in observing all the form and ceremony that he 
had decided was suitable for its presentation. He 
was especially particular to assume the "first 
position of a soldier," as he drew up in front of 
me. The tone with which he addressed me was 
deliberate and grandiloquent. The only variation 
in his regulation manners was that he allowed 
himself to speak before he was spoken to. With 
the flourish of his colossal arm, in a salute that 
took in a wide semicircle of Kansas air, he said, 
"Good morning, Mrs. Major - General George 
Armstrong Custer." He was the only gleam of 
fun we had in those dismal days. He was a 
marked contrast to the disciplined enlisted man, 
who never speaks unless first addressed by his 
superiors, and who is modesty itself in demeanor 
and language in the presence of the officers' 
wives. The farewell salute of our mail-carrier 
was funnier than his approach. He wheeled on 
his military heel, and swung wide his flourishing 
arm, but the "right about face" I generally lost, 
for, after snatching my envelope from him, un- 
awed by his formality, I fled into the house to 
hide, while I laughed and cried over the contents. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY RE- 
INFORCEMENTS OF BLACK TROOPS A NEGRO's 

MANCEUVRE A UNIQUE OFFICIAL REPORT PECU- 
LIAR FORTIFICATIONS INDIAN ATTACK ON A 

STAGE A DESPERATE RUNNING FIGHT A PLUCKY 

WOMAN CHOLERA AT FORT WALLACE RETURN 

OF THE SEVENTH THERE SWINDLING CONTRACT- 
ORS DESERTIONS AN INGENIOUS PRISON FORT 

WALLACE ATTACKED A BRAVE AND SKILLFUL 

SERGEANT THE WORST DAYS OF THE SEVENTH 

NO LETTERS GENERAL CUSTEr's MARCH TO 

FORT HARKER FOR SUPPLIES A DAY AT FORT 

RILEY HAPPINESS AT LAST. 

" I "HE first fight of the Seventh Cavalry was at 
Fort Wallace. In June, 1867, a band of 
three hundred Cheyennes, under Roman Nose, 
attacked the stage-station near that fort, and ran 
off the stock. Elated with this success, they pro- 
ceeded to Fort Wallace, that poor little group of 
log huts and mud cabins having apparently no 
power of resistance. Only the simplest devices 
could be resorted to for defense. The com- 
missary stores and ammunition were partly 

676 



NEGROES VOLUNTEERING. 6/7 

protected by a low wall of gunny-sacks filled 
with sand. There were no logs near enough, and 
no time, if there had been, to build a stockade. 
But our splendid cavalry charged out as boldly as 
if they were leaving behind them reserve troops 
and a battery of artillery. They were met by a 
counter-charge, the Indians, with lances poised 
and arrows on the string, coming on swiftly in 
overwhelming numbers. It was a hand-to-hand 
fight. Roman Nose was about to throw his jave- 
lin at one of our men, when the cavalryman, with 
his left hand, gave a sabre-thrust equal to the best 
that many good fencers can execute with their 
sword-arm. With his Spencer rifle he wounded 
the chief, and saw him fall forward on his horse. 
The post had been so short of men that a dozen 
negro soldiers, who had come with their wagon 
from an outpost for supplies, were placed near the 
garrison on picket duty. While the fight was 
going on, the two officers in command found 
themselves near each other on the skirmish-line, 
and observed a wagon with four mules tearing 
out to the line of battle. It was filled with negroes, 
standing up, all firing in the direction of the Ind- 
ians. The driver lashed the mules with his black- 
snake, and roared at them as they ran. When the 
skirmish-line was reached, the colored men leaped 
out and began firing again. No one had ordered 



678 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



them to leave their picket-station, but they were 
determined that no soldiering should be carried 
on in which their valor was not proved. The 
officers saw with surprise that one of the number 
ran off by himself into the most dangerous place, 
and one of them remarked, " There's a gone nigger, 
for a certainty ! " They saw him fall, throw up his 
hands, kick his feet in the air, and then collapse — 
dead to all appearances. After the fight was over, 
and the Indians had withdrawn to the bluffs, the 
soldiers were called together and ordered back to 
the post. At that moment a negro, gun in hand, 
walked up from where the one supposed to be 
slain had last been seen. It was the dead restored 
to life. When asked by the officer, " What in 
thunder do you mean, running off at such a distance 
into the face of danger, and throwing up your feet 
and hands as if shot?" he replied, "Oh, Lord, 
Massa, I just did dat to fool 'em. I fot deyed try 
to get my scalp, thinkin' I war dead, and den I'd 
jest got one of 'em." 

The following official report, sent in from some 
colored men stationed at Wilson's Creek, who 
were attacked, and successfully drove off the Ind- 
ians, will give further proof of their good service, 
while at the same time it reveals a little of other 
sides of the negro, when he first began to serve 
Uncle Sam : 



68o TESTING ON THE PLAINS. 

" All the boys done bully, but Corporal Johnson 
— he flinked. The way he flinked was, to wait 
till the boys had drove the Injuns two miles, and 
then he hollered, ' Gin it to 'em ! ' and the boys 
don't think that a man that would flink that way 
ought to have corporal's straps." 

In order to give this effort at military composi- 
tion its full effect, it would be necessary to add 
the official report of a cut-and-dried soldier. No 
matter how trifling the duty, the stilted language, 
bristling with technical pomposity, in which every 
military move is reported, makes me, a non-com- 
batant, question if the white man is not about as 
absurd in his way as the darkey was in his. 

Poor Fort Wallace ! In another attack on the 
post, where several of our men were killed, there 
chanced to be some engineers stopping at the 
garrison, en route to New Mexico, where a Gov- 
ernment survey was to be undertaken. One of 
them, carrying a small camera, photographed a 
sergeant lying on the battle-ground after the 
enemy had retreated. The body was gashed, and 
pierced by twenty-three arrows. Everything 
combined to keep that little garrison in a state of 
siege, and a gloomy pall hung over the beleaguered 
spot. 

As the stage-stations were one after another at- 
tacked, burned, the men murdered and the stock 



UNDERGROUND FOR TIFICA TION. 68 I 

driven off, for a distance of three hundred miles, 
the difficulty of sending mail became almost in- 
surmountable. Denver lay out there at the foot of 
the mountains, as isolated as if it had been a lone 
island in the Pacific Ocean. Whenever a coach 
went out with the mail, a second one was filled 
with soldiers and led the advance. The Seventh 
Cavalry endeavored to fortify some of the deserted 
stage-stations ; but the only means of defense 
consisted in burrowing under-ground. i\fter the 
holes were dug. barely large enough for four men 
standing, and a barrel of water and a week's pro- 
vision, it was covered over with logs and turf, 
leaving an aperture for firing. Where the men 
had warning, they could " stand off " many Ind- 
ians, and save the horses in another dug-out 
adjacent. 

After a journey along the infested route, where 
one of our officers was detailed to post a corporal 
and four men at the stations when the stagfe com- 
pany endeavored to reinstate themselves, he de- 
cided to go on into Denver for a few days. The 
detention then was threatening to be prolonged, 
and at the stage company's headquarters the 
greatest opposition was encountered before our 
officer could induce them to send out a coach. 
Fortunately, as it afterward proved, three soldiers 
who had orders to return to their troop, accom- 



582 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

panied him. The stage company opposed every 
move, and warned him that he left at his own risk. 
But there was no other alternative, as he was due 
and needed at Fort Wallace. At one of the 
stage-stations nearest Denver a woman still en- 
deavored to brave it out ; but her nerve deserted 
her at last, and she implored our officer to take 
her as far as he went on her way into the States. 
Her husband, trying to protect the company's in- 
terests, elected to remain, but begged that his wife 
might be taken away from the deadly peril of their 
surroundings. Our officer frankly said there was 
very little chance that the stage would ever reach 
Fort Wallace. She replied that she had been 
frightened half to death all summer, and was sure 
to be murdered if she remained, and might as 
well die in the stage, as there was no chance for 
her at the station. 

Every revolution of the wheels brought them 
into greater danger. The three soldiers on the 
top of the stage kept a lookout on every side, 
while the officer inside sat with rifle in hand, look- 
ing from the door on either side the trail. Even 
with all this vigilance, the attack, when it came, 
was a surprise. The Indians had hidden in a 
wash-out near the road. Their first shot fatally 
wounded one of the soldiers, who, dropping his 
gun, fell over the coach railing, and with dying 



684 TENTIXG OX THE PLAINS. 

energy, half swung himself into the door of the 
stage, gasping out a message to his mother. Our 
officer replied that he would listen to the parting 
words later, helped the man to get upon the seat, 
and, without a preliminary, pushed the woman 
down into the deep body of the coach, bidding 
her, as she valued the small hope of life, not to 
let herself be seen. As has been said before, 
those familiar with Indian warfare know well with 
what redoubled ferocity the savage fights, if he 
finds that a white woman is likely to fall into his 
hands. It is well known, also, that the squaws 
are ignored if the chiefs have a white woman in 
their power, and it brings a more fearful agony to 
her lot, for when the warriors are absent from the 
village, the squaws, wild with jealousy, heap 
cruelty and exhausting labor upon the helpless 
victim. All this the frontier woman knew, as we 
all did, and it needed no second command to 
keep her imperiled head on the floor of the coach. 
The instant the dying soldier had dropped his 
gun, the driver — ah, what cool heads those stage- 
drivers had ! — seized the weapon, thrusting his lines 
between his agile and muscular knees, inciting his 
mules, and every shot had a deadly aim. The 
soldiers fired one volley, and then leaped to the 
ground as the officer sprang from the stage door, 
and following beside the vehicle, continued to 



A WOMAN OF NERVE. 685 

fire as they walked. The first two shots from the 
roof of the coach had killed two Indians hidden 
in the hole made by the wash-out. By that 
means our men got what they term the " morale " 
on them, and though they pursued, it was at a 
greater distance than it would have been had not 
two of their number fallen at the beginning of 
the attack. 

This running fire continued for five miles, when, 
fortunately for the little band, one of the stage- 
stations, where a few men had been posted on 
our officer's trip out, was reached at last. Here a 
halt was made, as the Indians congregated on a 
bluff where they could watch safely. The coach 
was a wreck. The large lamps on either side of 
the driver's seat were shattered completely, and 
there were six bullet-holes between the roof and 
the wooden body of the coach. When the door 
of the stage was opened, and the crouching wo- 
man lifted her face from the floor and was helped 
out, she was so unmoved, so calm, the officer and 
soldiers were astonished at her nerve. She looked 
about, and said, " But I don't see any Indians yet." 
The officer told her that if she would take the 
trouble to look over on the bluff, she would find 
them on dress parade. Then she told him about 
her experience in the stage. The dying soldier 
had breathed his last soon after he fell into the 



686 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

coach, and all the five miles his dead body kept 
slipping from the seat on to the prostrate 
woman. In vain she pushed it one side ; the vio- 
lence with which the vehicle rocked from side to 
side, as the driver urged his animals to their ut- 
most speed, made it impossible for her to protect 
herself from contact with the heavy corpse, that 
rolled about with the plunging of the coach. All 
this, repeated without agitation, with no word of 
fear for the remaining portion of the journey, 
which, happily, was safely finished, drew from our 
officer, almost dumb with amazement at the forti- 
tude displayed, a speech that would rarely be set 
down by the novelist who imagines conversations, 
but which is just what is likely to be said in real 
life — " By Jove, you deserve a chromo ! " 

One troop of the Seventh Cavalry was left to 
garrison Fort Wallace, while the remainder of the 
regiment was scouting. The post was then about 
as dreary as any spot on earth. There were 
no trees ; only the arid plain surrounded it, and 
the sirocco winds drove the sands of that deso- 
late desert into the dug-outs that served for the 
habitation of officers and men. The supplies 
were of the worst description. It was impossible 
to get vegetables of any kind, and there was, 
therefore, no preventing the soldier's scourge, 
scurvy, which the heat aggravated, inflaming the 



FRA UDS IN THE RA TIONS. 



687 



already burning flesh. Even the medical supplies 
were limited. None of the posts at that time 
were provided with decent food — that is, none 
beyond the railroad. I remember how much 
troubled my husband was over this subject, when 
I joined him at Fort Hays. The bacon issued to 
the soldiers was not only rancid, but was sup- 
plied by dishonest contractors, who slipped in 
any foreign substance they could, to make the 
weight come up to the required amount ; and 
thus the soldiers were cheated out of the quantity 
due them, as well as imposed upon in the quality 
of their rations. It was the privilege of the enlist- 
ed men to make their complaints to the com- 
manding officer, and some of them sent to ask 
the General to come to the company street and 
allow them to prove to him what frauds were 
being practiced. I went with him, and saw a flat 
stone, the size of the slices of bacon as they were 
packed together, sandwiched between the layers. 
My husband was justly incensed, but could 
promise no immediate redress. The route of travel 
was so dangerous that it was necessary to detail 
a larger number of men to guard any train of 
supplies that attempted to reach those distant 
posts. The soldiers felt, and justly too, that it 
was an outrage that preparations for the arrival 
of so large a number of troops had not been per- 



688 TENTING ON THE PLAINS 

fected in the spring, before the whole country 
was in a state of siege. The suppUes provided 
for the consumption of those troops operating in 
the field or stationed at the posts had been sent 
out during the war. It was then 1867, and they 
had lain in the poor, ill-protected adobe or dug- 
out storehouse all the intervening time — more 
than two years. At Forts Wallace and Hays there 
were no storehouses, and the flour and bacon 
were only protected by tarpaulins. Both became 
rancid and moldy, and were at the mercy of the 
rats and mice. A larger quantity of supplies 
was forwarded to that portion of the country the 
last year of the war than was needed for the 
volunteer troops sent out there, and consequently 
our Seventh Cavalry, scouting day and night 
all through that eventful summer, were com- 
pelled to subsist on the food already on hand. 
It was the most mistaken economy to persist in 
issuing such rations, when it is so well known that 
a well-filled stomach is a strong background for 
a courageous heart. The desertions were unceas- 
ing. The nearer the troops approached the mount- 
ains, the more the men took themselves off to 
the mines. 

In April of that year no deaths had occurred 
at Fort Wallace, but by November there were 
sixty mounds outside the garrison, covering the 



DESERTIONS INCREASING. 689 

brave hearts of soldiers who had either succumbed 
to illness or been shot by Indians. It was a fear- 
ful mortality for a garrison of fewer than two 
hundred souls. If the soldiers, hungry for fresh 
meat, went out to shoot buffalo, the half of them 
mounted guard, to protect those who literally 
took their lives in their hands, to provide a few 
meals of wholesome food for themselves and their 
comrades. At one company post on the South 
Platte, a troop of our Seventh Cavalry was sta- 
tioned. In the mining excitement that ran so high 
in 1866 and 1867, the captain woke one morning 
to find that his first-sergeant and forty out of sixty 
men that composed the garrison, had decamped, 
with horses and equipments, for the mines. This 
left the handful of men in imminent peril from 
Indian assaults. The wily foe lies hidden for days 
outside the garrison, protected by a heap of stones 
or a sage-bush, and informs himself, as no other 
spy on earth ever can, just how many souls the 
•little group of tents or the quarters represent. In 
this dire strait a dauntless Sergeant Andrews 
offered to go in search of the missing men. He 
had established his reputation as a marksman in 
the regiment, and soldiers used to say that 
"such shooting as Andrews did, got the bulge on 
everybody." He was seemingly fearless. The 
captain consented to his departure, but demurred 



690 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to his going alone. The sergeant beheved he 
could only succeed if he went into the mining- 
camp unaccompanied, and so the officer permitted 
him to go. He arrested and brought away nine, 
traveling two hundred miles with them to Fort 
Wallace. There was no guard-house at the post, 
and the commanding officer had to exercise his 
ingenuity to secure these deserters. A large hole 
was dug in the middle of the parade-ground and 
covered with logs and earth, leaving a square 
aperture in the centre. The ladder by which they 
descended was removed by the guard when all 
were in, and the Bastile could hardly be more se- 
cure than this ingenious prison. 

Two separate attacks were made by three hun- 
dred Dog-soldiers (Cheyennes) to capture Fort 
Wallace that summer. During the first fight, the 
prisoners in their pit heard the firing, and knew that 
all the troops were outside the post engaged with 
the Indians. Knowing their helplessness, their 
torture of mind can be imagined. If the enemy 
succeeded in entering the garrison, their fate was 
sealed. The attacks were so sudden that there 
was no opportunity to release these men. The 
officers knew well enouo^h, that, facingf a common 
foe, they might count on unquestionable unity of 
action from the deserters. Some clemency was 
to be expected from a military court that would 



A FRANTIC APPEAL. 69 I 

eventually try them, but all the world knows the 
savage cry is " No quarter." In an attack on a 
post, there is only a wild stampede at the sound 
of the " General " from the trumpet. There is a 
rush for weapons, and every one dashes outside the 
garrison to the skirmish-line. In such a race, every 
soldier elects to be his own captain till the field is 
reached. I have seen the troops pour out of a 
garrison, at an unexpected attack, in an incredibly 
short time. No one stands upon the order of his 
going, or cares whose gun or whose horse he 
seizes on the way. Once the skirmish-line is 
formed, the soldierly qualities assert themselves, 
and complete order is resumed. It is only neces- 
sary to be in the midst of such excitement, to 
realize how readily prisoners out of sight would 
be forgotten. 

After the fight was over, and the Indians were 
driven off, the poor fellows sent to ask if they could 
speak with the commanding officer, and when he 
came to their prison for the interview, they said, 
" For God's sake, do anything in future with us 
that you see fit — condemn us to any kind of pun- 
ishment, put balls and chains on all of us — but 
whatever you do, in case of another attack, let us 
out of this hole and orive us a ofun !" I have known 
a generous-minded commanding officer to release 
every prisoner in the guard-house and set aside 



692 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

their sentences forever, after they have shown 
their courage and presence of mind in defending" 
a post from Indians, or other perils, such as fire 
and storms. 

The brave sergeant who had filled the pit with 
his captures, asked to follow a deserter who had 
escaped to a settlement on the Saline River. He 
found the man, arrested him, and brought him 
away unaided. When they reached the railway at 
Ellsworth, the man made a plea of hunger, and 
the sergeant took him to an eating-house. While 
standing at the counter, he took the cover from a 
red-pepper box and, furtively w^atching his chance, 
threw the contents into the sergeant's eyes, com- 
pletely blinding him. The sergeant was then ac- 
counted second only to Wild Bill as a shot, and 
not a whit less cool. Though groaning with 
agony, he lost none of his self-possession. Listen- 
ing for the foot-fall as the deserter started for the 
door, he fired in the direction, and the man fell 
dead. 

Our regiment was now passing through its worst 
days. Constant scouting over the sun-baked, 
cactus-bedded Plains, by men who were as yet un- 
acclimated, and learning by the severest lessons to 
inure themselves to hardships, made terrible havoc 
in the ranks. The horses, also fresh to this sort of 
service, grew gaunt, and dragged their miserably 



TRYING TIMES. - 693 

fed bodies over the blistering trail. Here and 
there along the line a trooper walked beside his 
beast, wetting, when he could, the flesh that was 
raw from the almost inevitable sore that the 
saddle causes, especially when the rider is a novice 
in horsemanship. 

Insubordination among the men was the certain 
consequence of the half-starved, discouraged state 
they were in. One good fight would have put 
heart into them to some extent, for the hopeless- 
ness of following such a will-o'-the-wisp as the 
Indians were that year, made them think their 
scouting did no good and might as well be dis- 
continued. Some of the officers were poor 
disciplinarians, either from inexperience or be- 
cause they lacked the gift of control over others, 
which seems left out of certain temperaments. 
Alas ! some had no control over themselves ; and 
no one could expect obedience in such a case. In 
its early days the Seventh Cavalry was not the 
temperate regiment it afterward became. Some of 
the soldiers in the ranks had been officers during 
the war, and they were learning the lesson, that 
hard summer, of receiving orders instead of issu- 
ing them. There were a good many men who 
had served in the Confederate army, and had not 
a ray of patriotism in enlisting ; it was merely a 
question of subsistence to them in their beggared 



694 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

condition. There were troopers who had entered 
the service from a romantic love of adventure^ 
with httle idea of what stuff a man must be made 
if he is hourly in peril, or, what taxes the nerve still 
more, continually called upon to endure privation. 

The mines were evidently the great object that 
induced the soldier to enlist that year. The 
Eastern papers had wdld accounts of the enormous 
yield in the Rocky Mountains, and free transporta- 
tion by Government could be gained by enlisting. 
At that time, when the railroad was incomplete, 
and travel almost given up, on account of danger to 
the stages ; when the telegraph, which now reaches 
the destination of the rogue with its warning, far 
in advance of him, had not even been projected 
over the Plains — it was the easiest sort of escape 
for a man, for when once he reached the mines he 
was lost for years, and perhaps died undis- 
covered. 

Recruits of the kind sent to us would, even 
under favorable circumstances, be difficult material 
from which to evolve soldierly men ; and consid- 
ering their terrible hardships, it was no wonder 
the regiment was nearly decimated. In enlisting, 
the recruit rarely realizes the trial that awaits him,, 
of surrendering his independence. We hear and 
know so much in this country of freedom, that 
even a tramp appreciates it. If a man is reason- 



CONSPIRACIES AMONG THE TROOPS. 



695 



ably subordinate, it is still very hard to become 
accustomed to the infinitesimal observances that I 
have so often been told are " absolutely necessary 
to good order and military discipline." To a 
looker-on like me, it seemed very much like re- 
ducing men to machines. The men made so 
much trouble on the campaign — and we knew of it 
by the many letters that came into garrison in one 
mail, as well as by personal observation, when in 
the regiment — that I did not find much sympathy 
m my heart for them. In one night, while I was at 
Fort Hays, forty men deserted, and in so bold 
and deliberate a manner, taking arms, ammuni- 
tion, horses and quantities of food, that the officers 
were roused to action, for it looked as if not 
enough men would be left to protect the fort. A 
conspiracy was formed among the men, by which 
a third of the whole command planned to desert 
at one time. Had not their plotting been dis- 
covered, there would not have been a safe hour 
for those who remained, as the Indians lay in wait 
constantly. My husband, in writing of that 
wholesale desertion in the early months of the 
regiment's history, makes some excuse for them 
even under circumstances that would seem to 
have piit all tribulation and patience out of mind. 
After weary marches, the regiment found 
itself nearing Fort Wallace with a sense of 



696 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

relief, feeling that they might halt and recruit in 
that miserable but comparatively safe post. Thev 
were met by the news of the ravages of the 
cholera. No time could be worse for the soldiers 
to encounter it. The long, trying campaign, even 
extending into the Department of the Platte, had 
fatigued and disheartened the command. Ex- 
haustion and semi-starvation made the men an 
easy prey. The climate, though so hot in sum- 
mer, had heretofore been in their, favor, as the air 
was pure, and, in ordinary weather, bracing. But 
with cholera, even the high altitude was no pro- 
tection. No one could account for the appear- 
ance of the pestilence ; never before or since had 
it been known in so elevated a part of our country. 
There were those who attributed the scourge to 
the upturning of the earth in the building of the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad ; but the engineers had 
not even been able to prospect as far as Wallace, 
on account of the Indians. An infantry regiment, 
on its march to New Mexico, halted at Fort Wal- 
lace, and even in their brief stay the men were 
stricken down, and, with inefficient nurses, no 
comforts, not even wholesome food, it was a won- 
der that there was enough of the regiment left for 
an organization. The wife of one of the officers, 
staying temporarily in a dug-out, fell a victim, 
and died in the wretched underground habitation 



RA VAGES OF DISEASE. 



697 



in which an Eastern farmer would refuse to shel- 
ter his stock. 

It was a hard fate for our Seventh Cavalry men. 
Their camp, outside the garrison, had no protec- 
tion from the remorseless sun, and the poor fel- 
lows rolled on the hot earth in their small tents, 
without a cup of cold water or a morsel of decent 
food. The surgeons fought day and night to stay 
the spread of the disease, but everything was 
against them. The exhausted soldiers, disheart- 
ened by long, hard, unsuccessful marching, had 
little desire to live when once seized with the 
awful disease. 

With the celerity with which evil news travels, 
much of what I have written came back to us. 
Though the mails were so uncertain, and travel 
was almost discontinued, still the story of the ill- 
ness and desperate condition of our regiment 
reached us, and many a garbled and exaggerated 
tale came with the true ones. Day after day I 
sat on the gallery of the quarters in which we 
were temporarily established, watching for the 
first sign of the cavalryman who brought our 
mail. Doubtless he thought himself a winged 
Mercury. In reality, no snail ever crept so slowly. 
When he began his walk toward me, measuring 
his regulation steps with military precision, a 
world of fretful impatience possessed me. I 



698 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

^vished with all my soul I was, for the moment, 
any one but the wife of his commanding officer, 
that I might pick up my skirts and fly over the 
grass, and snatch the parcel from his hand. 
When he finally reached the gallery, and swung 
himself into position to salute, my heart thumped 
like the infantry drum. Day after day came the 
same pompous, maddening words : " I have the 
honor to report there are no letters for Mrs. Major- 
General George Armstrong Custer." Not caring 
at last whether the man saw the flush of disap- 
pointment, the choking breath, and the rising 
tears, I fled in the midst of his slow announce- 
ment, to plunge my wretched head into my pillow, 
hoping the sound of the sobs would not reach 
Eliza, who was generally hovering near to pro- 
pose something that would comfort me in my dis- 
appointment. 

She knew work was my panacea, and made an 
injured mouth over the rent in her apron, which, 
in her desires to keep me occupied, she was not 
above tearing on purpose. With complaining- 
tones she said, "Miss Libbie, aint you goin' to do 
no sewin' for me at all ? 'Pears like every darkey 
in rarrison has mo' does than I has "^ — forgetting^ 
in her zeal, the abbreviation of her words, about 
which her " ole miss" had warned her. Sewing, 
reading, painting, any occupation that had be- 



A SU.VSHIXY DAY. 699 

guiled the hours, lost its power as those letterless 
days came and went. I was even afraid to show 
my face at the door when the mail-man was due, 
for I began to despair about hearing at all. After 
days of such gloom, my leaden heart one morning 
quickened its beats at an unusual sound — the clank 
of a sabre on our gallery and with it the quick, 
springing steps of feet, unlike the quiet infantry 
around us. The door, behind which I paced un- 
easily, opened, and with a flood of sunshine that 
poured in, came a vision far brighter than even the 
brilliant Kansas sun. There before me, blithe and 
buoyant, stood my husband ! In an instant, every 
moment of the preceding months was obliterated. 
What had I to ask more ? What did earth hold 
for us greater than what we then had ? The Gen- 
eral, as usual when happy and excited, talked so 
rapidly that the words jumbled themselves into 
hopeless tangles, but my ears were keen enough 
to extract from the medley the fact that I was to 
return at once with him. 

Eliza, half crying, scolding as she did when 
overjoyed, vibrated between kitchen and parlor, 
and finally fell to cooking, as a safety-valve 
for her overcharged spirits. The General ordered 
everything she had in the house, determined, 
for once in that summer of deprivations, to have, 
as the soldiers term it, one " good, square meal." 



^OO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

After a time, when my reason was again 
enthroned, I began to ask what good fortune had 
brought him to me. It seems that my husband, 
after reaching Fort Wallace, was overwhelmed 
with the discouragements that met him. His 
men dying about him, without his being able to 
afford them relief, was something impossible for 
him to face without a struggle for their assistance. 
A greater danger than all was yet to be encoun- 
tered, if the right measures were not taken im- 
mediately. Even the wretched food was better 
than starvation, and so much of that had been 
destroyed, with the hope of the arrival of better, 
that there was not enough left to ration the men, 
and unless more came they would starve, as they 
were out then two hundred miles from the rail- 
road. If a scout was sent, his progress was so 
slow, hiding all day and traveling only by night, 
it would take so long that there might be men 
dying from hunger as well as cholera, before he 
could return with aid. And, besides this scarcity 
of food, the medical supplies were insufficient. 
The General, prompt always in action, suddenly 
determined to relieve the beleaguered place by go- 
ing himself for medicines and rations. He took 
a hundred men to guard the wagons that would 
bring relief to the suffering, and in fifty-five hours 
they were at Fort Hays, one hundred and fifty 



f^Mr 'G8 



A TERRIBLE JOURXEY. 7OI 

miles distant. It was a terrible journey. He 
afterward made a march of eighty miles in 
seventeen hours, without the horses show^ing 
themselves fagged ; and during the war he had 
marched a portion of his Division of cavalry, 
accompanied by horse artillery, ninety miles in 
twenty-four hours. 

My husband, finding I had been sent away from 
Fort Hays, and believing me to be at Fort Harker, 
a victim of cholera, determined to push on there 
at night, leaving the train for supplies to travel 
the distance next day. Colonel Custer and 
Colonel Cook accompanied him. They found 
the garrison in the deepest misery, the cholera 
raging at its worst, the gloom and hopelessness 
appalling. My husband left the two officers to 
load the wagons, and, fortunately, as the railroad 
had reached Fort Harker, the medical and com- 
missary supplies were abundant. It took but a 
few hours to reach Fort Riley, 

He knew from former experience that I would 
require but a short time to get ready — indeed, my 
letters were full of assurances that I lived from 
hour to hour with the one hope that I might join 
him, and these letters had met him at Forts Hays 
and Harker. He knew well that nothing we might 
encounter could equal the desolation and suspense 
of the days that I was enduring at Fort Riley. 



702 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

My little valise was filled long before it was 
necessary for us to take the return train that even- 
ing. With the joy, the relief, the gratitude, of 
knowing that God had spared my husband 
through an Indian campaign, and averted from 
him the cholera ; and, now that I was to be 
given reprieve from days of anxiety, and nights 
of hideous dreams of what might befall him, and 
that I would be taken back to camp — could more 
be crowded into one day ? Was there room for a 
thought, save one of devout thankfulness, and 
such happiness as I find no words to describe ? 

There w^as in that summer of 1867 one long, 
perfect day. It was mine, and — blessed be our 
memory, which preserves to us the joys as well 
as the sadness of life ! — it is still mine, for time 
and for eternity. 

END. 






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